Damon and Elena's Daily Lives
by highwayunicorns
Summary: Written from the prompt, 'A drabble a day for the next 30 days', each of these oneshots are an insight into the daily lives of Damon and Elena. Each oneshot is unrelated, and they will all be about really random things. Rated T for language and sexual themes.
1. Chapter 1: Formal

**A/N: These are simply a series of unrelated Delena oneshots, from the prompt 'A drabble a day for the next 30 days'. They're not really drabbles, because for some reason it's literally impossible for me to write fanfics that are 100 words or less. Each oneshot will span across the entirety of The Vampire Diaries, so just be warned for major changes in the way that Elena and Damon are acting around each other.**

**Word: Formal  
Set: 3x08/3x09/3x10 (around that lovey-dovey time period when Delena were very comfortable around each other)  
**

Chapter One: Formal

Damon sat on the plush velvet seat in the dressing room of some big and pretty formal-wear store, scowling at the deep purple drawn curtain which hid the love of his life.

Elena Gilbert might be the love of his life, but she was being a real goddamn pain right now. She knew how much he hated shopping, but because Caroline and Bonnie were busy she had dragged him along anyway. She was looking for something to wear to her school's upcoming _Belle of the Ball _dance – Damon's exact reaction to hearing this was _'You still go to school?' _– and needed advice on the perfect dress.

At first, Damon's will had held strong. He was very firm with her; no he would absolutely _not _go shopping with her. But then she had to pull out her wide-eyed sad and hurt look, the exact same look that had him bending over backwards to abide to her will. Without allowing himself to, he'd told her that he would come with her to find her a dress. The only good thing to come out of it was that Elena's eyes had lit up magnificently, and a hint of a smile graced her lips.

Being in love with her really sucked sometimes, because she somehow always managed to get her way. He ignored the small voice in his head which whispered, _that's because you're whipped as fuck, Salvatore.__  
_

"Oh, Damon, I think I've found the perfect dress," Elena suddenly gushed from behind the curtain, drawing him out of his thoughts.

"Really? So we can go now?" Damon asked hopefully.

He heard her laugh quietly. "No, silly, you still have to tell me what you think of it."

Damon sighed. "But then we can go?"

"You sound like a little kid," Elena muttered to herself. Damon smirked, knowing he wasn't supposed to hear that. "No, Damon, then we have to find jewellery," she replied patiently.

Damon rolled his eyes. Of course she did. "Well why don't you just wear your vervain necklace and call it a night?"

"Because, Damon, it's a formal ball...ish. I have to look like a princess, or so Caroline keeps informing me," he heard her adjust some things to her dress as she spoke.

"Okay. So, are you going to let me see you in the dress, or are you going to keep hiding yourself in there?" Damon asked, a little calmer now.

"Yes, but if you don't like it, you must promise that you won't laugh," Elena said, sounding rather shy.

"Elena, I could never do that. You always look stunning," Damon said honestly. It was true - even in her absolute worst moments, she still looked perfect.

"Okay," Elena said, and pulled back the curtain, stepping out into the waiting room.

Damon's jaw dropped.

Elena flushed slightly as she stood before him, quickly averting her eyes down to her dress. It was a bright, sky blue colour, which blossomed out from the waist into a large polonaise. Yes, she definitely looked like a princess, and she wasn't even made up yet.

"It has crinoline in the polonaise, which is why it's so puffy," Elena said when Damon was silent, "and I don't know, I thought it suited a formal ball because, well...it's so princess-y."

Damon just gazed at her, unable to speak. She was absolutely beautiful. His heart thumped painfully in his chest as he stared at her.

Elena finally looked up at him. "What do you think?"

He stood up and reached for her hand, never once breaking eye contact. She looked at him funnily – he supposed that he must have looked kind of insane – but allowed him to take her hand. Lifting their joined hands, he gently twirled her around.

Puzzled, Elena asked, "So, do you like the dress or not?"

"I think I prefer the girl wearing the dress," he smirked at her. "You look absolutely beautiful, Elena."

Elena's mouth slowly turned up at the corners, her cheeks taking on a faint pink glow. "You do like the dress?"

"I like the dress."

* * *

After the dance, Damon wasn't surprised when Elena told him that she had won the formal title of 'Belle of the Ball'.


	2. Chapter 2: Snowflake

**A/N: Thank you Gabrielle, Tinyflyer02 and WhatABeautifulGoodbye for your reviews ;) Adorable Delena are the best Delena am I right?**

**The word prompt for this chapter is _snowflake. _I love snow, but as we don't get any here in Auckland, and as I've never actually seen snow fall before, this could be written horribly, horribly wrong. Also, I really have no idea if it snows in Virginia because I live on the opposite side of the world, so...basically what I'm trying to say is please bear with me and my ignorance ;)**

**Word: Snowflake  
****Set: 2x16/2x17 (in between)**

Chapter Two: Snowflake

"Elena! Elena, wake up!"

The violent shaking that someone was giving her rapidly brought her to consciousness, and she moaned tiredly, pushing that person away.

The shaking stopped for a few seconds, before it was back in full force.

"I'm not going to stop, so you should really just wake up," the person muttered sarcastically. Elena sighed, immediately knowing who this person was. Damon Salvatore. Whatever he was doing in her bedroom at such an ungodly hour, she really didn't want to know. It could wait until the morning.

Damon paused in his efforts to rouse her from her sleep, and with a shrug, leant down and kissed her cheek. As soon as he'd done it, he couldn't believe he had, and doubled with the fact that he was now staring into the now wide open brown eyes of Elena, he imagined that she couldn't believe he had either.

"What..." Elena began, but then caught herself. She wasn't about to question his methods of trying to wake her up, as that surely was all it was. A foolproof way to wake her up. Right?

It perhaps took longer that it should have, waiting for him to move away from her. Once he had, he was back to being Damon – the strange look in his eyes had left. She breathed a sigh of relief. Don't get her wrong, she liked him, but he was just so unpredictable that she never really knew what was going on inside his head.

"Are you going to tell me why you woke me up at," she checked the clock on her bedside table, "7am! Jesus Christ, Damon! Unless the world is ending and it is of utmost importance that you need me for something, would you please promise to never wake me up this early, ever, ever again?"

Damon smirked. "Hell no. But it actually is of utmost importance that I need you. I need you to come with me."

"Why?"

"Why? Do you need an explanation for everything? Where's the spontaneity? Where's that girl who came with me to Atlanta, and decided to have time out for five minutes?" Damon replied, walking over to her closet and opening it.

Elena watched him warily. "She's still in here."

"Well good, because you are coming with me, and if I have to dress you myself, I will," he flashed her a sly grin.

She sighed. "Fine. There's no way in hell I'm letting you dress me, so what do you want?"

Damon was leafing through all of her clothes, disappearing amongst all the clothes racks. Elena was about to get up and see what he was doing, but she stopped when a big, fluffy coat was thrown her way, along with a black turtleneck sweater, some big white mittens, and a pair of big white snow boots.

_Snow boots._

"Damon," Elena huffed, pushing back her blankets and slowly trudging over to him. "What on _earth _are you doing?"

"I'm getting you suitable clothes," Damon replied simply. He seemed to have decided that there was nothing else that she needed in the closet, so he shut it and walked over to her dresser.

Elena waited for him to elaborate. After a couple of minutes, she rolled her eyes and asked, "Suitable clothes for what?"

He turned back to her. "Surprise, remember?"

"So it's a surprise now?" _Brilliant._

"Yes." Damon said, opening up one of her drawers, and Elena's eyes widened when he realised what he was looking through. Her underwear drawer, of _course. _Without a word, he tossed to the bed the most lacy, revealing, black lingerie pieces she owned.

Elena's cheeks flushed bright red.

"Put all of those on," Damon instructed, lazily wandering over to her bed and flopping down on it.

Elena hadn't moved from her closet. "Are you going to watch me do it?"

"Well, if you want me to..."

"Get out."

Damon placed a hand over his heart. "Ouch. I won't leave, but if I promise not to peek, could I turn my back to you?"

Elena muttered incoherently under her breath, before finally speaking up. "Fine."

Damon turned his back and Elena wordlessly began changing her clothes.

"Why are you being so bitter?" Damon wondered.

Elena pondered if she should answer his question truthfully. She knew it would hurt his feelings, but it was the truth, and for some reason Damon always knew when she was lying. "I'm being bitter because the last time you were in my bedroom you weren't exactly being a perfect gentleman."

From where she was standing, she saw when he clicked onto what she had meant. They hadn't spoken of that night for a long time, but it was still there, underneath everything. Elena watched as Damon's entire body went rigid.

Elena felt bad for saying it, but it was true. They had become friends again since then, and she had helped him with Rose, but she was still a little hesitant towards him. "I'm sorry Damon, but it's true."

Damon nodded slightly. "That it is." His voice was completely flat.

Elena looked away from him, and pulled on the last few items, tucking her black jeans into her white, fluffy snow boots. The silence was getting more and more awkward.

Elena was suddenly at a loss as to what to do. Damon had gotten her up, forced her to dress, and was now very upset. Deep down, Elena knew that Damon had been extremely unstable that night, because of Katherine, and she also knew that she had said something nearly identical to what Katherine had said, so she understood why he had snapped. She had realised that Jeremy, the victim, had forgiven Damon – so if he had, shouldn't she be able to?

Truthfully, she didn't understand why she got so worked up by Damon. Whenever Stefan did something, she could forgive him easily. But when Damon did something? She held onto that grudge for as long as she could.

_You do it because you are the one trying to make him see that he should be the better man,_ a voice inside her whispered. She found herself agreeing with it.

"I _am_ sorry, Damon," Elena said again.

Damon turned towards her, his face that of an ancient sadness she could never hope to understand. "No, I'm sorry. I know exactly what you're talking about, and I know we haven't spoken of it for a while, but you need to know. I am sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, and anyway it was before I realised that I was in lo-" Damon stopped mid-sentence, "before I realised that I really didn't want to hurt you." He rephrased. "Katherine just really got to me, and well, you would have been upset too if the woman you loved for over a century suddenly told you that she never loved you."

Damon didn't even sound upset as he said this, which surprised Elena. "I know. I know I can't really ever understand what you were going through, but I accept your apology." Damon's eyes lit up slightly. "So, are you going to show me what this surprise is, or not?"

Filled with a warm fuzzy feeling, Damon replied, "Yes. Let's go."

Elena smiled at him. She liked when he was like this. He almost seemed happy, and Elena eagerly followed him now.

Damon led her down her stairs and out her door, and immediately Elena gasped in surprise.

Everything was covered in beautiful, white snow. It was everywhere!

Damon looked up at the clouds for a second. "Come on, the snow has stopped for the moment."

Elena, in a bit of a daze, followed him. He led her to her backyard, where somehow even more snow lay. It was completely white and untouched, and Elena laughed happily, saying, "That's snow!"

"It is indeed," Damon grinned. "Do you see now why I wanted to get you up so early?"

Elena sighed. "Yeah..."

Damon smirked and tackled her back into the snow pile. She gasped as the coldness hit her, and narrowed her eyes at him. She noticed he was laughing to himself.

"It's not funny," Elena growled.

"Oh, if you saw yourself right now, you'd disagree."

Elena sighed loudly, extending a hand. "Fine. You're hilarious. Help me up?"

Damon, still laughing, obliged. The moment that his hand was in hers, she pulled with all of her might, and, caught off guard, he collapsed onto the snow next to her.

Elena collapsed into a fit of giggles. "You're right, that _is _hilarious."

Damon growled at her. "Not funny."

"Oh, if you saw yourself right now, you'd disagree," she teased him.

Suddenly, they both noticed an intricately designed white snowflake falling from the sky, and watched in awe as it gently landed on Elena's face.

She and him both looked up at the sky, fascinated by all the different snowflakes and their pretty patterns, but they were also disappointed that their time in the snow was over.

"Damon?" Elena asked. He looked at her.

"Can we do this again tomorrow?"


	3. Chapter 3: Thousand

**Word: Thousand  
****Set: Anywhere from 3x01 to 3x13**

Chapter Three: Thousand

If you'd told Elena Gilbert that she would be helping Damon Salvatore clean out his closet in the not too distant future, she would have probably laughed her head off, told Damon what you'd said, and laughed her head off with him.

Except, she was.

She was helping him clean out his closet. Well, no, that wasn't exactly true – she was dusting everything within reach and sight because Damon refused to allow her to touch his things (he said it was because he was afraid she would "mess everything up").

Truthfully, there wasn't much to clear out. As a vampire, Damon was typically always on the move, so nothing about his room was particularly well-lived in. Apart from his bed, he said with a sneaky grin and a wink, when she brought this up.

Elena had been instructed to not touch any of his clothes, but since she'd been dusting for a good hour and a half, she felt the need to ignore him and throw them all out. He'd bitch and fuss, but she knew he'd forgive her eventually.

_And it would be so worth it, _Elena thought, laughing quietly.

"What's so funny?" Damon asked, obviously having heard her laughter.

"Nothing."

"No, I'm serious. Did you find something? What are you doing?" Damon moved farther into the closet, checking to make sure she wasn't doing anything that would seriously harm his existence.

"Nothing," Elena repeated. "I'm not doing anything. You could help me not do anything, if you want."

"I think I have to. I don't trust you in here with all my John Varvatos shirts...you are Katherine's doppelgänger, after all." He paused, thinking. "Also, you were Stefan's girlfriend for a while. He could have taught you the art of destroying Damon's expensive shirts..."

"Oh my god, you're so controlling!" Elena interrupted him, busying herself with the dust-ridden shelf she was standing in front of. Absentmindedly, she looked around to see if she could spot anything interesting.

She did. Elena stopped dusting, reached up and carefully took down an ornate-looking box, which she set on the shelf in front of her. She then gently lifted the lid and gasped.

Literally thousands and thousands of paper notes were in there. _Thousands _of them.

"Damon!" Elena exclaimed.

"Yes?" He was by her side in a second.

"How much money do you _have! _This box has to contain at least..." she tried to estimate, "...100,000 dollars in cash!"

Damon relaxed. She'd only found his cash. "Yeah, well. I don't really trust banks."

"You don't trust anyone," Elena contradicted him, looking back at the money with wide eyes.

"Not true. I trust you." Damon patted her head.

"I'm flattered," she rolled her eyes. When he didn't reply, she quickly realised he was being serious. "Wait. You're serious? I'm the only person you trust? Out of _anyone?_" She turned back to him, her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Damon nodded, catching her eye. "You know why."

Elena blushed slightly. Yes, she knew why. She was pretty sure _everyone_ knew why. "But..._only _me?"

"I have a hard time trusting people." He didn't look sad about it; he was simply stating a fact.

Elena didn't want to accept this. "What about Stefan? Or...or Alaric? Or Caroline? Or Jeremy? Or Bon-" she stopped herself. _Obviously_ he didn't trust Bonnie, what on earth was she thinking?

Damon grinned at her, a row of perfect white teeth quickly flashing her before they were just as suddenly out of sight. "I know you don't want to hear this, but Stefan's evil right now, and evil people can't be trusted. I don't even trust him around _you_ at the moment. Alaric and I do have our moments, but I've killed him a couple of times, so... Caroline? No way. She's adorable, but I definitely don't trust her. I did use her as a chew toy for a while...and anyway Jeremy is more like a puppy..."

"Hey!" Elena interrupted, hitting his arm.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "Anyway, you never want him around any vampires. I doubt you'd be okay with me trusting him."

Elena sighed. Okay, so Damon only trusted her. That was a pretty huge thing for him to come out and say. "Only me?" She whimpered slightly.

Damon smiled genuinely, gently taking her face in his hands. "Only you. It's always been you."

Elena didn't really know what to do, so she just stared at him. He looked like he very much wanted to kiss her, and she gulped - in anticipation or fear, she didn't know - but he released her.

As soon as she was sure he wasn't paying close attention, she breathed a huge sigh of relief, turning back to the money.

"If I took some money from here, would you notice?" She wondered.

"Of course I would," he scoffed, sounding offended by her question.

"So you totally noticed that I took some just now?" She smirked, stuffing the money she'd snuck from the box into her front pockets.

Damon whirled on her, trying to pinpoint where she'd hid the money.

Elena giggled, brushing past him, quickly walking back into his room.

She was no more than three steps into the room when she suddenly found herself pinned against a wall. Her eyes widened as she realised just how close he was.

"Um, Damon..." she whispered.

"Yes, Elena?" Damon's eyes flashed with various emotions.

"I..." Elena trailed off as she felt Damon's lips by her ear. Her eyes rolled - he was so close to her and that small inch of seperation was driving her _crazy_.

He gently kissed her ear and whispered slowly, enunciating each syllable, "Give me the money back and I'll release you."

Elena couldn't quite make sense of what he meant. Her body was responding to his closeness in extremely foreign ways and she couldn't really understand anything else that was happening. They weren't even doing anything!

_If this is what it's like to simply be close to him, imagine what it's like to kiss him. To have sex with him! _Her brain told Elena, and she shuddered, also amazed at the electricity between them.

"I...what?" Elena eventually replied.

She felt Damon's smile on her ear. "Give me the money back, and I'll release you, Elena."

Elena wasn't really sure that she wanted to be released. A large part of her, she was surprised by just _how _large it was, screamed at her to not give the money back and see where this led. But a smaller, more rational part of her was like, _Elena, what are you doing! You can't do this - not now, not yet!_

As much as Elena hated to admit it, she knew that part was right. With a long, loud sigh, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the money. Damon took it from her hand, but didn't release her.

"Damon?" Elena almost begged. If he didn't move _now, _she was going to go insane.

Damon pulled back from kissing her ear and stared into her eyes. She could see the lust contained in his, and swallowed.

_Oh, it couldn't hurt to be kissed by him, could it? _She thought.

Damon seemed to see this thought, somehow, and his blue eyes darkened even more. Just as he was leaning in to kiss her, a voice suddenly sounded from the doorway.

"Damon, I've found out some more information about-oh. My. _God! _What are you two doing!" The person squealed.

Elena looked away briefly from Damon to see Caroline standing in Damon's doorway, looking completely shocked and embarrassed at having walked in on them.

Damon looked really pissed off. Elena was surprised to find that she was too.

"Can't you see we're a little busy?" Damon all but growled at her.

Elena blushed at the fact that her best friend had caught her like this. Elena and Damon were still wrapped around each other against the wall, and she really, _really _didn't want to know what it looked like they were doing from afar.

_She would never believe me if I told her that we were fighting over the thousands of paper notes, _Elena thought sheepishly.

**A/N: I agree with Elena. I can't believe how out of hand this got, but hey, I did say in my summary _"Rated T for language and sexual themes". _;)**

**Leave a review if you liked the chapter! It gives me incentive to keep writing, knowing that people enjoy my story :)**


	4. Chapter 4: Order

**A/N: Wow thanks guys! Loving the support, because seeing as this fic is so random and unrelated, I wasn't expecting all of the positivity. So thank you so much! If you have any suggestions on how I should improve, please let me know – this story is as much for you as it is for me!**

**Also, the reason this took a little longer to update is because I've decided to post a new chapter every other day, but as I've been watching the Olympics (go New Zealand!) the new chapter just completely went over my head.**

**Word: Order**

**Set: 3x08/3x09/3x10 – although it doesn't really matter, since this isn't really canon as they are dating in this chapter.**

Chapter Four: Order

"Why here?" Elena asked, looking out the car window at a small, quaint – yet somehow still managing to exude expensiveness – restaurant. "I'm not exactly dressed for this place," she looked down at her attire, frowning.

"Are you kidding, Elena?"

She sighed. "Fine, we'll go here."

"You make it sound like eating food is the worst possible thing that you could ever imagine." Damon muttered.

Elena realised that she may have hurt his feelings – she could never really tell, since he was always so hesitant to open up, even to her. "I'm sorry Damon, I do want to have dinner with you," she reached over and gently stroked his hand.

He smiled slightly at her, and she breathed a small sigh of relief.

"Shall we?" Damon asked, and she nodded. Before Elena even had her seatbelt off, Damon was out of the car and opening her door for her, offering her his hand. She accepted it with a smile – his subconscious chivalry always amused her – and stepped up out of the car.

"Are there going to be many people?" Elena asked, as she wrapped both her arms around one of his.

"I don't know. But if you want, I could kill every-" Damon stopped when he saw her glare. "Okay, no killing. But we can just go somewhere else if you want."

"No, you chose a good place. Klaus won't think you'll take me somewhere like this," Elena soothed him. They were almost at the restaurant now.

"I'm flattered that he thinks so much of me," Damon rolled his eyes. "However, if he does happen to walk in, we need you to look as un-Elena-like as possible."

"You mean like..."

"No, god, not like Katherine! Anyway...Klaus doesn't know that you are my girlfriend," Elena didn't fail to notice the bright flicker in his eyes as he said this, "so if I tell you that I love you, that's code for _'Elena start kissing me because Klaus is in the restaurant', _okay?"

Elena burst out laughing. "Sure, Damon. Although, I'm thinking that you wouldn't mind saying or doing either of those things anyway," she teased.

Damon smiled. "Of course. But still, we don't want Klaus to come and whisk you away to some creepy place where he'll drain you of your blood, okay sweetheart?" He leaned over and kissed the crown of her head.

"No we do not," Elena agreed.

Once inside the restaurant, a bleached-blonde hostess greeted them. Well, she greeted _Damon, _and didn't really pay much attention to Elena except to note the linked arms.

"A table for two?" Damon asked politely.

The girl pursed her lips. "Sure."

She was about to start walking, when Damon stopped her. "As far away from the door as possible."

The lady sighed. "Of course, sir."

As they were being led to their table, Elena pulled Damon's face down to her height and whispered in his ear, "I think she likes you."

"That sucks for her. Who does she think you are?" He was about to say something else, but stopped when he felt Elena kiss his ear.

"Why don't we let her decide that for herself?" she whispered slowly into his ear.

"I would love to, but I think it would be better that we kept our clothes _on _while here. When we get home, though..." This time, he was shut up with a kiss, deep and passionate.

"Well, here we are sir. Do you require anything-oh, I'm sorry, I'll leave you two to it, then." Damon and Elena pulled apart just in time to see the waitress leave, obviously embarrassed at the public display of affection between the two.

Elena smirked, happy that she now realised Damon was with her and not with anyone else.

Damon noticed her smirk. "Did you pull that just to make her jealous?"

"No. I just wanted her to know that you're mine and never will be hers."

"Well, you got that right," Damon agreed cheerfully.

They sank into their designated seats, and immediately opened the menus.

"Do you think their filet mignon is good?" Elena absently chewed on her lower lip as she looked at the food menu.

"Maybe. Get it and find out."

"Only if you do, too. That way, if I get food poisoning because you let me pick a bad meal, you can make sure that I never do again."

"Fine. We'll both get the – oh god. I love you!" Damon suddenly blurted.

Elena looked up in alarm. "What? OH!"

Without allowing herself to look, trusting that Damon was right, she quickly leant over the table and began kissing him.

Several minutes passed, and the coast seemed to be clear. Klaus hadn't spotted them. After what seemed like forever, Damon finally pulled away from her.

"I don't think he saw us. Next time though, I am taking you on a proper date with the fear of a Klaus attack _not _looming over us, okay?" Damon briefly kissed her again, before leaning back and picking up his discarded menu.

"Okay," Elena breathed, still slightly out of breath. "I like the code, though."

"Me too, Elena."

"Are you folks ready to order?" A nice-looking man suddenly said with a smile.

"Yes, can we both get the filet mignon?" Damon requested.

The man jotted the order down. "And to drink, miss?

"I'll just get a coke, thanks. But with extra ice cubes, please?" Elena asked.

"Sure thing, hon. And for you, sir?"

"I'll get a bourbon, thanks." Elena rolled her eyes. Why wasn't she surprised.

"Great. Your appetizers will be out soon," the man took the menus, and left.

The evening passed by pleasantly, with the couple enjoying each other's company and the wonderful food. Once they were getting ready to leave, their table clear, Damon quickly said, "I love you!"

Elena dove in for another kiss, really not wanting Klaus to spot them after their relatively perfect night. Again, after a really long time, Damon pulled away from her somewhat reluctantly and checked to make sure Klaus was gone. Seeing that he was, Damon exhaled loudly, and helped Elena up.

"Are you okay?" Damon asked worriedly.

Elena laughed shakily. "Of course. I'm just out of breath from your kiss, with the added fear of being whisked away by Klaus."

"Klaus does not whisk. I whisk."

"Okay, Damon, whatever you say." She shook her head.

"You do know that I love you, right?" Damon suddenly said.

"Of course I do. Why?"

"You seemed to be getting annoyed after the second time I said it."

"Oh, no, silly Damon. That was just because I didn't want Klaus to ruin our date. You're too paranoid," she smiled. "You know I love you too, don't you?"

"Yes," he sighed. "It's still nice to hear you say it, though."

**A/N: I'm not sure I'm too happy with this chapter, but hey, it's written now. I hope you at least liked it! New chapter will be posted in a couple of days.**


	5. Chapter 5: Haze

**A/N: 3, what a peculiar name you have. That is all I have to say really, except thanks for your continued support everyone :)**

**Oh, and also, starting next week I have my mid-year exams so I won't be able to update for a couple of weeks. However, as soon as those exams are over, I'll be back. This means that this will be the last chapter for a while, but don't worry, I haven't abandoned you.**

**Word: Haze  
****Set: Mid-season 2**

Chapter Five: Haze

"Are you sure you should be going out, Elena? It's pretty late," Jeremy asked, folding his arms and leaning against Elena's open door.

"Yeah, Jer, I can't sit here. The rain has given me crazy cabin fever and I _have _to get out. Have to." Elena was in the process of tying up her long, brown hair into a high ponytail, as she had decided that she wanted to go for a run. "And anyway, I can take care of myself."

"Sure you can."

"Hey!" Elena whirled on him, her tone indignant. "Just because a bunch of vampires are constantly trying to protect me, doesn't mean that I need to be babysat twenty-four hours a day!"

"Well, that bunch of vampires are the only reason that you are alive right now," Elena tried to interrupt, but he kept talking: "and I don't want to lose my sister, okay?"

"I don't want you to lose me either, but honestly, I'm _just _going for a run!"

"Fine, fine, but if something bad happens I'll be waiting here to say 'I told you so', okay?" Jeremy sighed, and left her room.

"You won't have to!" Elena yelled after him. She wasn't going to miss this chance of getting to leave the confines of her house while the rain had stopped.

Finally ready, Elena did a few quick stretches to warm up her muscles, and headed downstairs.

"Where are you off to at this late hour, Elena?" A voice sounded just as she was about to turn the knob to her front door.

Elena turned to see her aunt Jenna standing there, arms crossed and looking over her attire with a critical eye.

"I'm just...going for a walk." Elena said slowly.

"A walk?"

"Yes." Elena confirmed.

Jenna sighed. "I can't stop you, but why on earth do you want to run _now?_ It could start raining again at any moment!"

"Exactly, which is why I want to go now. I have a serious case of cabin fever," Elena rolled her eyes. "I am getting sick of these four walls."

"Me too," Jenna agreed, and then reluctantly nodded. "Okay, you can go. Try to not be too long though, okay?"

Elena flashed her a quick smile and was out the door, calling back over her shoulder: "I'll try!"

Now out into the dark of the night, Elena breathed slowly. While she was finally outside, her brief sense of security had vanished just as fast as her warmth. As she'd been inside, trapped by the rain, all thoughts of Klaus had left her mind. But now...

Elena looked cautiously up and down the street, and deciding that it was safe enough to continue, slowly began a steady jog.

_Why would he be out at this time of night, anyway? _Elena tried to assure herself, before groaning internally. _Of course he'd be out at this time of night - he's a _vampire! _A nocturnal creature!__  
_

She now wished that she'd brought her iPod with her, just so that she could distract her mind.

_Shut up, Elena, you're just being paranoid. Klaus won't be out here...except...you don't know what he looks like... _

"Okay, that's enough," Elena ordered herself. She knew she was right - she had _no _idea what Klaus looked like. The only person who did in Mystic Falls was Katherine, but she was still in the tomb as far as she knew.

Now slightly warmer, Elena picked up the pace of her run and rounded a bend, onto an unfamiliar street. She immediately slowed. Normally, she wouldn't have had a second thought about running down here, as she knew exactly where it was, but now she couldn't see anything in front of her.

A weird haze, or fog, completely covered the street. It was so thick, that she could only barely see the first two houses in the street. What was even weirder, however, was the fact that if she turned around there was absolutely no haze - it was only on this one street.

_What in the world...?_

Not really sure what to do, but extremely curious as to what had caused this haze, Elena cautiously ventured down the street. Its overwhelming thickness consumed Elena, and she immediately decided that she'd made the wrong choice with letting herself journey down there.

She turned, and began walking back the way she'd come. Certain that she'd taken no more than a few steps into the haze, she expected to exit it just as fast. She didn't. Elena became increasingly worried as she struggled to find the way out and her heart rate increased along with her panic.

Suddenly hearing footsteps, Elena called out for help.

The person, whoever they were, didn't hear her, so she tried to follow the sound of their footsteps.

"Please! I can't find my way out!" Elena shouted in the general direction of the sound.

Nothing happened for a few seconds. Then Elena felt someone directly behind her, and she turned to see a young man she'd never seen before.

"Hi," Elena greeted him. "Can you help me?"

The man shook his head. "No."

"What do you mean? Are you lost too?"

"No."

Self-consciously, Elena noticed that he was staring at her almost hungrily.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Elena asked, her voice coming out smaller than she'd hoped it would.

"I'm sorry. You just look so..." He seemed unable to finish his thought, gesturing vaguely at her.

"Look, I have a boyfriend..." Elena backed away slightly, swallowing. She had realised how dangerous this situation could become, and wanted to get away from him; fast.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "Let me start over. What's your name?"

"Elena," she told him.

"Elena," he said her name. "Come here."

"Why?" She frowned. Looking into his eyes, she noticed how his eyes were dilating and then contracting, almost like he was...

_Compelling her. _Elena shook her head, and turned away from him. Thanking everything that she had her vervain necklace on, she quickly started running away.

She still didn't understand the haze, but she knew she had to get away from the hungry vampire. Her body's survival fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, and she took off.

Soon, she started to think that he'd given up on her, and she turned quickly to see if he was chasing her when - _smack _- she ran into someone.

Looking up slowly, she saw the vamped-out face of the man.

He grinned evilly, the veins under his eyes and the sharp fangs terrifying Elena. He leaned forward, ripped off her vervain necklace, and then wasted no time with sinking his fangs into her neck.

The breath she'd been holding came out in a scared-for-her-life-come-and-help-me-please bloodcurdling scream, which was quickly shut off by the man clamping one of his hands over her mouth. Elena was tempted to bite it, but she knew that he had the upper hand in this situation.

_Please, don't kill me,_ she thought, her eyelids fluttering as she felt herself growing weaker and weaker.

Suddenly, a long, deliciously low murderous growl filled the air. Elena didn't know if it came from the vampire who was feeding from her, or from someone else, so she let it pass.

Until she fell to the ground.

She was vaguely aware of the sounds of someone fighting someone else, and, confused, opened her eyes.

She could see the vampire who had bitten her, and someone else. Someone wearing entirely black. He looked insanely familiar, and as she squinted her eyes, she recognised who it was.

Damon Salvatore.

Finally understanding that she was safe, she let her eyes close, and almost immediately fell unconscious.

* * *

"Elena! Wake up! ...Elena, please wake up? Pleeeeeaseeee? I will beg."

Elena smiled in spite of herself, and slowly opened her eyes to find herself face to face with Damon's own bright blue eyes.

"Damon," she whispered.

"Yes, it's me." Damon sat back, pleased she had awoken.

"What happened?" Elena asked, trying to sit up, but Damon was back and gently pushing her down.

"Stay lying down, Elena. From what I can tell, you lost a _lot _of blood. Luckily for you I happened to be around," he said jokingly, but she could see the utter seriousness in his eyes.

"Yes," she whispered. "Lucky me."

Damon shook his head, and reached for her. Not sure what he was doing, Elena warily waited to see what he would do, but he only slunk his arms around her waist and sat her up, so she was leaning against him.

"What are you doing?...Hey, what happened to the haze?" Elena asked, noticing for the first time that the haze which had perpetrated her vision and, well, really everything in sight, was gone.

"Hmmm?" Damon asked. Elena felt the sound in his chest, and she made sure to keep her eyes off his.

"There was a haze covering the street, Damon. Now it's gone."

"Oh, that was created by that vampire. Now he's dead, so it's gone. I thought you knew we could do that?"

"No, I didn't know that," Elena replied.

"Strange. Well, we can, and he did, which is why it was only on this one street. I'm surprised you even were out, Elena," he said, almost scolding her.

She grinned faintly. "I was out for a jog."

"Well, that went well."

"Yes," she agreed with a sigh. "How will I get home?"

Damon scoffed. "Really, Elena? You think that I would save you, kill your attacker and then _leave you here? _How much do you think of me?"

"I don't know, Damon," she realised she sounded pretty silly. "So you are going to take me home? If I can barely hold myself up, how am I supposed to walk?"

"Again, what do Damons do? We save the Elenas of the world," he tilted her head back so she could see his face and winked at her. "Remember Georgia?"

"Oh, yeah, you carried me." Realisation dawned on her. "You...you're going to carry me?"

"Yes," he confirmed.

Elena started to protest, but closed her mouth just as suddenly. "Very well."

Damon reached under her legs and carefully picked her up, cradling her against his chest. She was unsure of the position, but then again, he was Damon.

"Jeremy will say 'I told you so' when we get home," Elena said quietly.

"Why will he say that?"

"Because he said he would if anything bad happened," Elena laughed softly.

"Don't worry, you'll heal. It'll take a while for you to be Elena again, but you will heal," Damon assured her. "Until then, you are required to stay in bed, okay? That isn't a request. You don't want to hurt yourself even more."

Elena rolled her eyes and looked up at the sky. "It's a good thing that it'll be raining, won't it?"

Damon looked up too, and with a curse, held onto her more tightly. "I'm going to run to your house, okay?"

"Okay, why did you need - _woah!_" Elena gasped. Damon _had _run to her house. He'd used his vampire speed to get them out of the rain, and when she blinked again, he had her in her bedroom.

"Wow," Elena breathed. "I've never gone that fast before."

"Yes well, I don't like rain," Damon said matter-of-factly.

"You don't like _rain?_" Elena said in disbelief, and then started laughing.

"It's not funny! You know how many leather jackets I own - they're real leather! Leather and water shouldn't ever mix." Damon defended himself, gently setting her on her bed, and helped her tuck herself in.

"So will you be going back out into the horrible, horrible rain?" She teased, now sounding very tired.

"Yes," he sighed, and prepared to leave.

"You don't have to," Elena stopped him. "Anyway, how am I supposed to help myself?"

"Are you sure?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be? The rain won't be stopping for ages, anyway," Elena said.

"Okay." Damon said, and slowly sat, and lay down next to her, on her bed.

A few minutes past, and Elena finally spoke up: "Thank you, Damon."

"You're very welcome," Damon replied automatically.

"No, really. I don't know what I would have done if you weren't there," Elena yawned.

"Me neither," Damon agreed quietly, and Elena, feeling his eyes on her, slowly drifted off to sleep.

**A/N: A rather long chapter, which means you have more to sustain yourself with for the next couple of weeks.**

**I listened to _Turn It Back _by Nik Ammar while writing this chapter, a very beautiful Delena song which was used in the promo for _Heart Of Darkness, _aka the Delena wall sex epi ;)**

**Au revoir! Leave a review if you liked the chapter, and I will be back in a couple of weeks.**


	6. Chapter 6: Promise

**A/N: Bonjour! I've finished all of my exams now so that means I can come back to writing this story. I also had my birthday on the 22nd, and got a laptop(!), so I'll be able to write more often and hopefully get back on track (yay for you right omg).**

**This is just a warning that as I have had exams in my head these past couple of weeks, it'll take a while to get back into the groove of writing.**

**Word: Promise  
****Set: No specific time for this oneshot – but definitely set somewhere from 3x01 onwards until 3x13.**

Chapter Six: Promise

Damon hadn't spoken to Elena in little over two days. Elena didn't know specifically why, but she had the feeling that she'd done something unintentionally that had hurt him. Anyway, if she brought it up, he'd probably deny anything was wrong.

This infuriated Elena.

She knew just as well as anybody that he was in love with her, but at the same time as being completely pissed off, she was confused. She'd been thinking about _everything _she's said or done in his presence over the past few days that could have set him off, but she couldn't think of anything. However, she knew she had to go and see him, not only to find out what she'd done but also to make sure he wasn't being destructive.

Checking her phone for the umpteenth time, she was again disappointed to see that Damon hadn't replied to any of her texts. The last time they'd avoided each other like this was the few days after Elena had found out Damon was in love with her, which was shortly followed by her kissing him.

Elena collected her coat and keys for her car and headed downstairs, passing by Alaric and Jenna on her way out. They were in the midst of watching a movie, and were totally oblivious to her leaving the house.

Elena didn't really know what she was going to find, and consequently say to him once she'd found him, but she knew she had to see him. Once she was at the boarding house, she shut off the engine of her car and listened intently. She couldn't hear any screaming or any overly-loud music, so he didn't seem to have company.

Assuming he was there, anyway.

She slowly walked up to the front door and knocked.

One...two...three... she counted. After half a minute had passed, she decided to go inside. He knew she didn't have the patience to stand out there forever, and she had waited long enough.

As she made her way up to his room, where she presumed him to be, her gaze was quickly flitting over the house. Nothing _seemed _to be broken, but then again, Damon was weirdly obsessed with keeping his house clean. He could have replaced whatever he'd broken, too.

Luckily, there were no dead girls' bodies littered over the house (as had been the case a couple of weeks ago, when she'd seen the house absolutely covered with blood and dead girls by way of Stefan).

So familiar with Damon's wing of the house now, Elena walked straight to his bedroom. His door was open, so she marched straight through it.

Except Damon was nowhere to be seen.

Sighing unhappily, she trudged over to his colossal bed and collapsed onto it, groaning. He could easily have snuck out while she came into the house - he _was _a vampire after all.

"Can I help you, Elena?"

Elena rolled over quickly to spy Damon standing in his doorway, watching her, carrying various oddities in both hands.

"Did you follow me here?" She asked suspiciously.

"No, I just got home." He walked over to his closet, disappeared into it, and re-emerged a few seconds later. He appeared to have dumped his leather jacket and whatever else it was he was holding in the process. Elena tried not to look at how his shirt clung to his muscles, but still ended up flashing a quick, appreciative look as soon as she thought he wasn't watching her.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I know."

"So...?"

Elena sighed, watching him. "Why have you been avoiding me, Damon?"

"What makes you think I've been avoiding you?" He flew back at her immediately.

"I don't know, you haven't talked to me for two days. I was worried I'd done something to hurt you," Elena replied calmly.

Damon looked at her more carefully now. "What do you mean?"

Elena got up off the bed and walked over to him. He immediately tried to shrink away from her, which further proved her point. "What did I do, Damon? Tell me, so I can make it better."

Damon sighed. "You don't remember? It was a few days ago."

Elena's mind thought intently about the last few days. All she could remember was bumping into Damon on her way out of school, where he offered to take her home. She agreed, and in the car on her way home they talked. Elena couldn't see how that could upset Damon, but...

"Was it when you took me home?" Elena asked.

He scoffed. "No. That was nice. Think the day after that, Elena."

"Damon...I haven't seen you since then." Elena was very confused. He'd clearly been hurt by her, but she couldn't even remember what she'd done. "Did you compel me?"

"What?"

"I can't remember what I did, so I must have been compelled," she concluded.

"You were _not _compelled, believe me." Damon sighed, and went and sat down on the edge of his bed. Elena followed suit.

"How could you not remember, Elena? Are you purposely forgetting?" Damon asked her, his eyes tracing the lines in the hardwood floor.

"I promise I'm not, Damon. Do you not trust me?" Elena reached up and took his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her.

His eyebrows furrowed as her studied her, now also confused. "Of course I trust you. But then, none of this makes sense, Elena. What happened?"

"How am I supposed to know? How was I acting? What did we do?" Elena fired question after question at him.

Damon tried to look away again, refusing to answer.

"Was it that horrible?" She asked quietly.

"No, it was the total opposite. It was unexpected, sure, but it was amazing." Damon sighed._  
_

"Amazing?" Elena could only think of one thing. They must have kissed. "Did we..."

"No, we didn't have sex, Elena," Damon interrupted her. If Elena was being completely honest, his tone of voice implied that they'd done something _very _close to that.

"Okay," Elena let out a breath. "Did we kiss?"

"If that's what you want to call it, sure."

"What do you mean?" Elena repeated his earlier words.

"It was about as close to sex as you can possibly get without actually having sex," Damon quickly said.

_Surely I would remember that, _Elena thought. They'd kissed only once, as far as she could recall (not counting the one-sided kiss she gave him when he was dying), and Damon had been the one who had initiated it. "Damon..."

"Yes?"

She sighed. "I don't want to hurt you even further, but I'm pretty sure I would remember...that," she blushed slightly. "This isn't sounding like it was me who was...with you."

"How could it not have been you? You looked exactly th-" Damon clicked. "That bitch. It was Katherine, wasn't it?"

"It looks to have been that way, yeah," Elena said quietly.

"Well I guess that makes sense. Why would you have kissed me like that? It was totally Katherine."

"Hey! I could have done anything she did. Just because I don't..." Elena's eyes widened as she realised what she'd just said.

Damon looked at her, a smirk on his face. "Are you offering to show me?"

Elena rolled her eyes. He was Damon again. "No, Damon...but you know that I would never do something like that, and then just drop it forever, right? I'm not like Katherine."

Damon nodded. "I know."

"You don't seem that convinced. Damon, I _promise_ I would never do that, okay? Do you want me to hunt Katherine down and stake her for you? I would do it."

"No, Elena. I believe you."

"Good."

**A/N: Another chapter over. This one was really a get-back-in-the-groove chapter, but I think it turned out alright. Definitely not as well as it could have been, so I'm sorry everyone.**

**Leave a review if you liked the chapter!**

**I'm a little bit obsessed with Kimbra and Marina and the Diamonds at the moment, so I listened to Primadonna, How To Be A Heartbreaker, Mowgli's Road, Cameo Lover, Settle Down and Good Intent while I wrote this chapter. I think you should listen to these songs (especially Primadonna, How To Be A Heartbreaker and Cameo Lover. They're _amazing_).**

**À bientôt, tout le monde!**


	7. Chapter 7: Transformation

**A/N: Well hello again! I've decided that since season four of TVD will be starting soon, that I should pay tribute to the numerous fics that have popped up over the last few months of Elena turning into a vampire. So, that's what this chapter will be about! It's only an Elena actually turning into a vampire chapter, though. No daylight rings or anything. Enjoy!**

**Word: Transformation  
Set: Post 3x22**

Chapter Seven: Transformation

"You _what?_" Damon said, in absolute disbelief. He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it.

Meredith nodded sadly. "I'm sorry, Damon. I had to do it, otherwise she would have died. Bleeding on the brain is just as serious as it sounds. I had no idea that she would die, did I?"

_That she would die. _The words echoed hauntingly in Damon's mind. He couldn't process anything. He had gone completely numb.

"She's down in the morgue if you want to go and see her," Meredith said quietly when he didn't respond.

"She…she's alive?" Damon asked hesitantly.

She shook her head. "No, she's still…dead at the moment. You're more of the expert on vampire transformations, anyway. How long will it be until she wakes up?"

"I don't know – it's different for everyone…" Damon trailed off, looking down the hallway. "She's down there?"

"Yes."

Damon flew to the morgue and pushed the door open. The first thing he saw was his brother sitting down, looking at something – or rather, someone – before he turned his gaze to the person laying on the metal bed in the centre of the room.

Elena.

Damon stopped dead as soon as he saw her body. His unwillingness to process what had happened suddenly crashed into him, and he had to forcibly stop himself from collapsing to the floor and sob with loss.

_She isn't gone forever, she's going to wake up, _he repeated to himself like a mantra. He still couldn't believe that she was really dead at that moment. So, to distract himself, he whirled on his brother.

"What happened?" He all but growled at him.

Stefan warily looked up at him, before dropping his gaze. "I…I…" he took a deep breath, "She drowned in her car with Matt."

"Matt's dead as well? Why isn't his body in here then, too?" Damon asked, slightly confused. He had an idea of what had happened, but he really wanted his brother to deny it.

"He didn't die," Stefan paused, considering his words. "I saved him."

Damon looked intently at him for a while, not understanding. Finally, once it clicked, he replied: "You saved Matt. You chose to save him over Elena."

Stefan looked away again. "I know."

"No, you don't know. I thought you were in love with her, man! You don't let the person you are in love with _die!_"

"She told me to save Matt, Damon! What would you have done? Not listened to her?"

"Yes, Stefan! Elena isn't _always _right! Yes, she may have hated me for a while, but I would have saved her life over Matt's because I love her. You don't let the person you love most die when you could have otherwise saved them! Honestly!" Damon exclaimed, moving as far away from Stefan as he could while still being by Elena.

The silence that followed Damon's outburst was absolute. Damon could feel Stefan's gaze on him, but he refused to look at him – only looking at Elena's peaceful face. He kept telling himself, _she'll wake up, she'll wake up, _but he wasn't sure if he wanted that. Eternity as a vampire, or getting to die a mortal? Obviously, he selfishly wanted her to always be alive, but at the same time he didn't want this life for her.

Damon was trying not to think about the fact that he hadn't been there to save her. He knew he could have, if he'd been there, but he hadn't. While thinking this way, he also realised that he'd broken his promise to her - that he would never leave her again.

A sudden flicker of movement caught Damon's attention and he watched Elena more closely. The hand that he could see was indeed moving.

It wouldn't be long now.

Elena was back.

* * *

Understandably, Elena hadn't taken the news of her new undead status well. There had been tears, objections, and a lot of denial.

She'd only barely begun to accept the fact that she now had to choose whether to feed on blood or let herself die. In her current state, Damon wouldn't put her past either option, which terrified him. However, he knew how bad forcing someone to drink blood was, all thanks to Stefan, so he wasn't going to make her feed – even if he _really _wanted her to.

Also, Damon wasn't really sure how to act around her. Clearly he was very upset, but he also vividly remembered Elena calling him before she died, telling him that she chose Stefan. Therefore, he decided to not show any of his inner emotions to her. She didn't need to see his heartbreak.

"Damon?"

"Hmm?" Damon blinked, snapping out of his thoughts.

"I asked, how are we going to get blood into Elena?" Stefan repeated.

Damon looked carefully at his brother for what seemed like the hundredth time. "Stefan, we don't know if she's going to choose to become a vampire or not. We aren't going to have a repeat of our transformations, okay? Until she decides what she wants to do, then we aren't going to do anything. Just go up there and be all understanding-boyfriend, okay?" Damon sighed, pushing back from the table and leaving the house. Until Elena decided what she was going to do, he wasn't going to stay in that house for another minute. He understood how she felt completely, and ached for her pain, but he couldn't watch Stefan be the one to hold her and soothe her. It was too much.

Damon eventually ended up at the boarding house, where he trudged through the front door and collapsed onto one of the couches in the parlour. The emotional stress that he'd been exposed to over these last few hours had been far too much for him to handle, so now he found he was both physically and emotionally exhausted.

Damon wasn't really sure what had happened after that, but he was pretty sure he'd succumbed to sleep, as he now felt someone gently shaking him. Opening his eyes, he found that he was looking straight into the beautiful brown eyes of Elena. He blinked, confused. What was she doing here?

"Elena?" He asked.

She nodded, and stepped back from him. He immediately missed her closeness, and sighed at how ridiculous the amount of power she had over him was.

"What are you doing here? Where's Stefan? What time is it?"

Elena laughed quietly. "It's about 4 in the afternoon, I'm here because I wanted to see you and Stefan is off somewhere with Bonnie."

Damon's eyebrows furrowed. Off with Bonnie? "Why is Stefan somewhere off with Bonnie?"

"They're trying to find a way that will stop me becoming a vampire," she explained, rubbing her hands together.

Damon noticed this small gesture. "Elena...I hate to break this to you, but there is no way out. You either feed or you die. So, yes, that's a way to stop becoming a vampire - don't feed."

Elena sat down next to him with a groan. "I don't know what to do," she said, sounding very young.

Damon had to physically restrain himself from pulling her to him to comfort her. "I can't tell you what to do, Elena. You and I both know what happened when Stefan forced me to feed. Or what could have happened when I fed you my blood. It has to be your choice, and your choice alone."

"I know it has to be my choice. But...I also know that I don't have much time left, Damon. I'm getting colder," she said, doodling aimlessly on her leg. "I've seen firsthand what becoming a vampire does to people, but at the same time, there are some who have taken to it well - if they have help."

"What are you getting at?" Damon was almost sure that Elena was thinking about feeding.

"Well, Caroline was by herself when she turned. But once she had turned, and had...killed somebody...she got help. She's got about as much self-control out of any vampire I've ever met, and she hasn't been one for very long. You have amazing self-control too, Damon. It seems to me that you can control your bloodlust _much _better than Stefan can."

"That's because you're usually the only human I hang around. You know why I would never be able to hurt you that way. Of course, there's Bonnie, but she could kill me with a look. However, you haven't seen me with other humans, Elena. You might not want to hear it, but the only way I control my bloodlust is by feeding regularly from the source."

"You mean..."

"Yes," Damon confirmed. "I know it sounds bad to you, and I know Stefan hates it, but we both know he's not the one who should be allowed to judge other peoples' drinking habits. It helps to control it, Elena, trust me. I would suggest you do that too, or at least drink from blood bags all the time. The bunny diet Stefan is on is admirable, but it hasn't really helped him to control anything. Maybe his brooding skills."

Elena ignored his jest. "I understand. I'm just worried about hurting random people, I guess." Elena finally looked over at him.

"Elena, do I randomly bite you? Well, you're not exactly a random person I guess, but still. If you get enough blood you'll be completely fine, and doubled with the fact that you would have lots of people making sure you won't kill people, I'm sure you would be fine."

"So you have no doubts? None at all?"

"Of course I do. Nobody's perfect. I've killed my fair share of people, Stefan's probably killed more, and even Caroline's killed someone. It's what we do, it's who we are. We can't change that, we can only try to learn to control it. If you made it through the transformation without killing anybody at all, I'd probably get you a medal or a trophy or something."

"Well, that's really reassuring." Elena rolled her eyes. "Do you think I could do it, though? Be a vampire?"

"What do you mean? Anyone can. Well no, that's not true, but you're Elena. You'd be fine. You could call up Katherine and get her to tutor you, little Petrova," he joked.

"Okay." Elena sighed, sitting up straighter, her jaw locking determinedly.

"What do you mean okay? You're going to call Katherine? I don't think she would be pretty pleased with your decision to become a vampire, nor would she want to _tutor _you."

"No, I think I want to..."

"To feed?"

"Yes." She deadpanned.

* * *

It was extremely weird, Damon had to admit, watching Elena. After she'd gotten the idea in her mind to feed, they'd left the boarding house immediately. Damon was happy she was going with him, and also that they would be ruining Stefan and Bonnie's fail of an attempt to stop Elena from turning. He'd taken her to a rather secluded road in town, and had waited until someone walked along it. Elena had also instructed that he stop her if she got close to killing the person, whoever they would be, and that if he didn't she would never forgive him. That was reason enough to listen to her.

When a person stepped onto the street, Damon ran over and grabbed him - a guy, great - and after compelling him to keep quiet, bit into his neck with a grimace. Biting a guy was always a weird experience for him.

Damon pulled away at once, and watched as Elena moved towards the poor victim in a trance, her eyes trained on the blood dripping from his neck. It was like he was the only thing in her world at that moment, and ridiculously, Damon grew jealous. He was so whipped, it was actually becoming a problem.

Elena was now standing in front of him, and so gently pulled his head to one side, ghosting her lips over the blood on his neck. She licked her lips, and leaned down, drinking the blood greedily. After a little bit, she pulled back; and from Damon's view he watched as the veins under her eyes rushed blood to them, and as the fangs descended in her mouth. It was extremely weird. She now looked more like Katherine than ever, and after all, how many times had Damon seen those veins and fangs?

Shaking away his unease, he jumped on his guard as Elena now hungrily tore into the guy's neck, moaning slightly. Damon tried to block out the sounds of pleasure as she drank his blood, instead keeping an eye on how much she drank. After a couple of agonising minutes, he walked over to her and whispered in her ear: "Elena, you need to stop now. If you don't, he'll die."

She growled threateningly at his statement, not listening to him. So, Damon wrapped his arms around her waist and forcefully pulled her away from the guy. He was going to have one hell of a tear on his neck, Damon thought as he watched the guy fall to the ground. He was still alive, and Damon could tell that he was faking being unconscious so that they would leave him alone. Damon paid this no mind, he'd compelled him to forget the entire experience before it had even began.

Almost dragging the bloodthirsty Elena away from her victim, he tried to forget the sounds she was making. She was vicious now, and honestly, it terrified him. He'd seen plenty of vampires in his time, but he had heard what had happened to Katherine once she became a vampire. He _really _didn't want Elena to become evil like her.

Once far away from the town, Damon felt Elena calm down. Her fangs were still out, but she wasn't chomping at the bit to get away from him anymore.

"Better?" Damon asked quietly.

Elena simply glared at him, her entire mouth and lower face covered with blood.

"Hey, you told me to stop you," Damon defended himself.

Shoving away from him, Elena stalked into the forest. Damon followed her, of course.

"How do you feel?" Damon asked, genuinely concerned.

"Horrible. Awful."

"Oh, you can't mean that. You just drank blood!"

"Which is precisely my point. I just _drank blood. _Voluntarily. Sure, I'm not going to die anymore, but I can't believe I'm a vampire now," she tossed her hair back angrily. "That guy would have died too, if you hadn't been there, Damon. I wanted to kill him."

"It's all a part of the transformation."

"Well it sucks."

"I know," Damon agreed.

Suddenly, she stopped walking. She turned to look back at him. "I can't even control it, Damon. My fangs won't go away. All I can think about is blood."

Damon sighed, stepping closer to her. "You're brand-new, Elena. It will ease up eventually."

"Eventually," Elena scoffed. "Well, I've got the time now."

"Let me finish? Like I said, it will ease up eventually. Or, you could try what Caroline learned to do. Take deep breaths, and try and become calm."

Elena rolled her eyes. "Why?"

"So you can learn to control it. You want to do that, remember?"

Damon's eyes suddenly flew wide open. _Remember. _Elena was going to remember...

Oh God.

"Damon?" Elena looked at him carefully, her fangs disappearing and her eyes becoming normal again.

Well, that's another way to do calm down. "Yes?"

"What's wrong?" She walked even closer to him. "Why are you upset?"

"I'm not upset, I'm..." What was he, exactly? He wasn't really sure.

"You're upset, Damon. I can tell." She lifted her hands and rested them on his arms. This was weird, why was she being so consoling all of a sudden?

Ah, right. Heightened emotions.

"Damon, tell me what's wrong! I'll make it better, I promise." She rubbed his arms soothingly.

"Elena, honestly, everything's fine."

"I don't believe you," she said stubbornly.

"You really want to know?"

"I do," she nodded.

"You're going to remember, Elena. I'm a little worried about that, but I'm definitely not upset about it," Damon explained.

"Remember what?" Elena asked, confused.

"You'll find out. Just tell me that you won't freak out or slap me, okay? Remember, you made your choice."

Elena shook her head, still confused. "What are you talking about?"

Damon smiled slightly as he looked at her. "It'll probably be a bit of a shock, Elena. But I'm not going to tell you what happened, you'll have to wait until you remember."

Elena frowned, still extremely curious, but nodded. "Okay."

**A/N: Waaaaaah I didn't know how to end this I'm sorry...but if I hadn't it would have literally gone on forever. It's already at 3,000 words!**

**WeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEE are never ever ever getting back together...like ever.**

**What? I don't even know I'm tired okay don't pay any attention to me. I hope you appreciate what I do for you all, dear readers, as I literally pounded this out like a boss.**

**~`````***~~They all just want to be bubbles~~***`````~**

**Okay I'm going to go to sleep now. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Leave a review if you did, and I'll be back in a few days. Au revoir!**


	8. Chapter 8: Future

**A/N: Hey guys so sorry for how long it's taken to update! It's the last week of school before the end of term so we've been doing so many assessments it's actually ridiculous (I mean, didn't we **_**just **_**do exams!?) But now that I have finished my History, English, Science, French and Maths assessments I can come back to writing this story. Again – so, so, **_**so **_**sorry! It wasn't my fault, blame my teachers haha.**

**Anyway, this chapter is sort of a companion chapter to my previous one – **_**Transformation. **_**It'll follow Elena getting her daylight ring and remembering the memories Damon compelled her to forget. Dun dun dun. If you're like me, you can't **_**wait **_**to see that scene (apparently Damon will be with her when she remembers jakfhldahsfldjkashfkjl).**

**And since this doesn't really follow the rules of "A chapter a day for the next 30 days", you can pretend that the two chapters are seperate if you _really _want to. I'll mention specific things from the last chapter, though, so...yeah.**

**Word: Future  
Set: Post 3x22, following the events of **_**Transformation.**_

Chapter Eight: Future

If she looked quickly over herself in the mirror, she could almost pretend that nothing had changed. She still looked the same, mostly. She still thought the same…mostly. She was still technically the same Elena that she had always been.

Except for the teensy tiny fact that she was now a vampire.

Her eyes would occasionally turn bloodshot from hunger and more often than not she would feel the sharpness as her fangs pierced her lower lip. It had become extremely annoying, but all the vampires she knew had assured her that the hunger didn't become so much of a hassle later on, as it was for brand new vampires. Elena didn't know how long it would take until she would be able to curb her cravings, but she hoped it would be soon. She'd taken to staying away from her house as much as possible, just in case she snapped and killed Jeremy.

She'd been a vampire for one day. Only one day. It already seemed like she'd been one for a lifetime.

With a long sigh, Elena finished brushing her hair out and picked up the blood bag she'd left on the nightstand. Having a vampire girlfriend was really great - she could show up any time she wanted to escape the human world. Caroline had been especially welcoming once she realised that she wouldn't be alone anymore (both girls had chosen to ignore the fact that Bonnie now technically hated both of them).

"Elena, honey? I'm heading off to work, okay? Caroline should be back soon with some more blood for you. Will you be okay in the meantime?" Liz's voice rang out from down the hallway, sounding clear as a crystal to Elena with her new vampire hearing.

"Yes, I think so. Thank you, Liz," Elena called back. She couldn't make any promises, but at least for the moment she didn't feel as if she was going to go on a murderous rampage.

Liz then said goodbye and left the house, the front door shutting loudly and the key turning the lock. It still amazed Elena when she could hear things like this.

With a long sigh, Elena walked over and flopped back-first onto Caroline's bed, her blood bag in hand. She hadn't killed any humans yet, something which Damon had assured her would eventually happen. No vampire got through a transformation without killing somebody, or so he said.

"Oh, Elena, you are in luck! The hospital had so much blood available. You are going to be in absolute heaven!" A voice chirped excitedly from the doorway.

Elena turned her head to see Caroline beaming at her, carrying a basket full of blood bags.

"Caroline, did you just casually carry that into a hospital and take it out? It's not exactly the most inconspicuous basket." Elena pointed out, staring at the blood in said basket with hungry eyes.

Caroline saw her stare and rolled her eyes. "Listen, I know you're just a baby vamp, but there is a perfectly good blood bag in your right hand. This blood is for when you finish that. And also, yes I did just carry this basket in and out of the hospital. There is such a thing called compulsion, remember? Do I need to go over that again?" Caroline paused, looking at her carefully. "Speaking of which, have you remembered anything yet?"

"Remembered anything about what?" Elena sat up, crossing her legs.

Caroline cocked her head and sighed impatiently. "Compulsion, Elena. Have you remembered anything that you were compelled to forget, as a human?"

Elena frowned, thinking. No. No she hadn't. "What makes you think I've been compelled, Caroline?"

"So I'll take that as a no?"

"Caroline."

"Right." Caroline pursed her lips, considering her words. "Okay, Elena...I know you've been compelled. I just don't know what was said and the anticipation is _killing _me."

"Ha ha," Elena mocked her.

"You know what I mean," Caroline flushed slightly.

"Who compelled me? And is it normal that I haven't remembered anything yet?" Elena demanded of her, serious again.

"I...I would rather not say. You can find that out for yourself, 'kay? As for the not-remembering-yet," she sighed, rubbing her temple in thought. "It might not be normal? When I remembered everything I'd been compelled to forget, it didn't happen straight away. Everything came back in pieces, over several hours. You might remember one compelled memory right now, and another a few hours later."

"But if you were me right now, you would have remembered something already?" Elena asked, biting her lip.

Caroline nodded, then shrugged. "It's not like there's any rule book for this kind of thing."

Elena zoned out, thinking of what Damon had said just the day before:

_"You really want to know?"_

_"I do," she nodded._

_"You're going to remember, Elena. I'm a little worried about that, but I'm definitely not upset about it," Damon explained._

_"Remember what?" Elena asked, confused._

_"You'll find out. Just tell me that you won't freak out or slap me, okay? Remember, you made your choice."_

Could it...could it possible have been _Damon _who compelled her? Elena's face drained of blood as she realised this. It had to have been.

But what could he have possibly compelled her to forget?

"Caroline?"

Caroline averted her eyes, intuitively knowing that Elena had figured something out. "Yes, Elena?"

"Was it Damon who compelled me?"

Caroline chewed on her lower lip for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Yes. Damon compelled you."

"How on earth do you know that?"

Caroline now turned to stare at her friend with wide eyes. "_That's _what you're concerned about? Not the fact that Damon compelled you, but that you don't know how I found out he did? I worry about you sometimes."

Elena cracked a quick grin.

"Alaric told me. He was particularly drunk one night, probably didn't know what he was saying, and these secrets just came pouring out of him. One of them happened to be that Damon had compelled you. No idea how he found that out, and I wasn't even sure if it was true, but I'm still curious."

"Of course," Elena nodded in understanding, her mind reeling.

"Anyway, until you remember, I have an idea. Why don't we get Bonnie to come over? She has a present for you which I think you will like."

Elena looked at her friend in confusion. "A present?"

Caroline smiled.

* * *

"Why don't I get to choose which type of jewellery I have to wear for the rest of forever?" Elena complained.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "No, Elena. It has to be a specific kind, and the witch who enchants it has to make it herself. I didn't have time to ask for your opinion."

"Don't worry Elena, I didn't get to choose either," Caroline assured her, patting her knee.

Bonnie sent a glare Caroline's way, before opening up her grimoire. "I'm assuming you know what the rules surrounding this are? Even though you are my friend Elena, I won't condone any killing of any humans. You kill someone, I remove the spell on this ring, and you are punished as a slave to shadows for the rest of your future, understand?"

Elena nodded.

Bonnie nodded, happy, and then placed the small Lapis Lazuli ring on Caroline's bed.

"Where do I sit?" Elena asked.

"You can stay on the bed, that's fine," Bonnie murmured, flipping through the pages in her grimoire until she found the correct page. Walking over to Caroline's window, she pulled apart the curtains so that Caroline's room was filled with sunlight. Elena hissed, her fangs descending, and slunk back into the safety of the shade.

Bonnie ignored her, although Caroline sent her an amused look. Both girls then turned their attention to Bonnie, who was speaking swiftly in Latin, her hand over the ring.

Elena took deep breaths, willing her fangs to retract, and tried to focus on the conjuring spell that was being cast on her ring.

In no time at all, Bonnie opened her eyes and handed Elena her new ring. Elena took it and quickly slid it onto a finger, before flitting over to the window and basking in the sunlight with a sigh of relief.

"I can't imagine how vampires can cope with being completely nocturnal. I wouldn't be able to last," Elena commented, admiring her ring.

"Not all vampires are friendly," Bonnie replied dryly. "I'm gonna go now."

The two vampires nodded absently, not really listening, so Bonnie left without so much as a thank you.

"Do you want to go to your house now, Elena? It's the middle of the day, so Jeremy will be at school. You won't be in any danger of snapping, I promise." Caroline half-begged her.

Elena nodded, eager to enjoy the sunshine and leave the confines of Caroline's house.

* * *

"It feels like I haven't been here for so long," Elena whispered, running her hands over her duvet cover. "Yet nothing's changed. It's me who's changed."

"You haven't changed _that _much," Caroline assured her, sitting on the bed. "What I want to know is, what are you going to do with your vervain necklace?"

"I'm not going to wear it, if that's what you mean."

"Aren't you back with Stefan, though?" Caroline frowned, now confused.

"I am, but it doesn't feel right anymore. That chapter of my life has closed - Stefan gave the necklace to the human me, not the vampire me."

"He gave it to_ you,_ Elena, irregardless of what state you're in. Do you not want to wear it because Damon's the one who keeps returning it to you?"

"Caroline!"

"What?! I want to know these things! Don't you think I've noticed that it's always _Damon _who gets it back for you? Stefan certainly doesn't do that."

"No, he doesn't," Elena murmured. "But I'm not going to wear it."

"So it's true! You don't want to wear it because it reminds you of Damon! Oh sweetie," Caroline laughed.

Elena's vision suddenly blurred. She blinked, struggling to clear her vision, and found herself right in front of Damon.

"Damon?" Elena asked, confused.

Caroline opened her mouth, trying to see what she was looking at. It seemed as if Elena was in a trance.

_"I just have to say it once. You just need to hear it," Damon said, staring at her intently as he moved closer to her._

"Say what? Damon, what's going on? Where did Caroline go?" Elena tried to spot Caroline, but she couldn't see her. Damon was now right in front of her, and she felt her heart clench painfully as she saw the look in Damon's eyes.

_"I love you, Elena. And it's because I love you that...I can't be selfish with you. Why you can't know this. I don't deserve you...but my brother does."_

Elena felt herself smile at his words. He was going to be that selfless with her?

This was soon followed by panic.

"Damon, no. Please don't leave, you promised me you'd never leave me!" Elena cried frantically.

_"God I wish you didn't have to forget this...but you do." __Damon's eyes dilated and contracted now as he compelled her._

"Compelling me won't work remember? I'm a vam-oh. Oh." Elena suddenly got it.

"ELENA! TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!" Caroline finally exclaimed.

"It's Damon. I know what he compelled me to forget," Elena whispered with wide eyes.

"It was only one memory? But I was sure..." Caroline stopped talking. "What was it?"

"He compelled me to forget that he loves me, so that I could be happy with Stefan." Elena said quietly. It was so unbelievably selfless, she actually couldn't believe it. When had it happened, though? And how long had he been keeping this from her?

"We need to go and talk to Damon. Now."

**A/N: Leave a review if you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll be back in a few days (I promise, this time). Au revoir! :)**


	9. Chapter 9: Tremble

**A/N: Hello again my darling little readers. This chapter is really for one of my friends, Kia, who has been bugging me for the longest time about writing a double date with Delena and Klaroline. So, this is me fulfilling her wish. Enjoy!**

**PorcelainJester, I'm sorry! I had no idea - I had just finished watching Mean Girls (one of my favourite movies) and there's a scene where Karen says, "I thought she dumped him for Shane Oman?" to which Gretchen replies, "Irregardless, ex-boyfriends are just off-limits to friends. I mean, that's just, like, the rules of feminism!" :)**

**Word: Tremble  
Set: Mid-season 3 (for the Klaroline), slightly AU as well…just because it's a double date with Delena and Klaroline.  
**

Chapter Nine: Tremble

"No."

"Damon…"

"No."

"You don't even know what I'm going to ask!" Elena exclaimed, incredulous.

"You're right, I don't," he looked up from his book, "but you have your puppy eyes out in full force and I will not be swayed. You only use that look when you want something that you know I'll disapprove of."

Elena grumbled under her breath as she walked over to his bed, flopping down next to him with a huff. "But you didn't even know what I was going to ask," she said with a pout.

"Oh, come on pouty," he smirked at her. "But just as a matter of interest, what were you planning on asking?" Damon rolled onto his side so he could look at her more easily.

"Caroline wants to go on a date tonight," Elena explained, "and I told her we'd go."

"You, me, and Caroline? Sounds awesome." Damon rolled his eyes.

"No. You, me, Caroline…and Klaus."

Damon's eyes widened and his eyebrows rose comically high as he processed her words. "_Klaus?"_

"Yeah…Klaus," Elena pursed her lips. "Klaus is Caroline's boyfriend, if you want to put a label on him."

"Klaus, Elena? KLAUS? Caroline is dating Klaus? Of all the people in the world, she's going out with Klaus? Need I remind you that he's tried to kill you on numerous occasions?" Damon sounded so disbelieving that Elena had to laugh.

"I know, it makes no sense to me either, and of course I remember that. However, Caroline is my best friend. I have to give him a chance."

"That's adorable and all, but Elena, I don't know. He's Klaus. I didn't even know the guy had feelings, and now you're telling me that not only is he dating Caroline, but also that you agreed to go on a double date with them tonight? It's a little much for a guy to handle."

"Did you know I have this amazing ability to make myself cry? Would you like to see how I do it?" Elena asked mischievously, a wicked grin playing on her lips.

"Oh no, let's not do that," Damon shook his head, fearing what he would give into if he saw her cry.

"Pleeeeease, Damon? I'll do anything if you come on the date with us!" Elena said, resorting to begging.

"Anything?" Damon looked like he enjoyed the sound of that.

"Anything," she confirmed; a slight purr to her tone. Nuzzling close to his neck, she whispered: "But you'll only get what you want if you come with me."

Damon sighed, wrapping his arms around her. "You are going to be the death of me, Elena."

Elena giggled. "So that's a yes?"

"That's a yes. But don't think I won't forget your offer," he said with a quick grin.

"I know you won't," Elena laughed. "Thank you, Damon."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm amazing. You already know that," he said into her hair. Elena then felt the soft press of his lips against the crown of her head as he kissed her. She smiled softly.

"We can't stay in bed all day, Damon."

"I'd much rather prefer to stay here," he replied lazily. "An entire day in bed with Elena Gilbert! What would the neighbours think?"

"You have no neighbours, sweetheart," Elena reminded him patiently, "and as much as I would love to stay here with you, we have to meet Klaus and Caroline at 6 o'clock."

"Wonderful."

* * *

"How unbelievable. They aren't even here yet! We're supposed to be _their _guests, right?"

Elena sighed. After getting dressed into their fancy evening attire, they had driven to the restaurant where they were going to meet Klaus and Caroline. After a couple of minutes waiting, hardly as long as Damon was making it out to be, he started complaining.

"I could have stayed nice and warm in bed, but _no, _Caroline decides to-"

Elena tuned out. She didn't really want to hear Damon's little rant (to her, he was being a little ridiculous). Instead, she busied herself with watching how Damon's pretty blue eyes flashed whenever he was annoyed.

"Elena, are you even listening to me?" Damon demanded.

"Not really, no," Elena replied sheepishly.

"Why not?"

"I think you don't need to be overreacting this much, Damon," Elena explained.

"Well, I think that you need to be overreacting _more._ Or just even reacting more. You seem to be completely okay with the fact that we are going to be spending the evening with someone who is our arch nemesis, and it's infuriating," Damon sighed, rubbing his eyes as if suddenly tired.

"I understand that you're worried about me Damon," Elena rubbed his hand soothingly, "but Caroline will be able to stop him from doing anything stupid, trust me."

"I hope so," Damon muttered. Suddenly looking up, his eyes widened and Elena noticed his change in body posture. He had taken on a protective stance, and following his gaze, Elena knew why.

Klaus and Caroline had just arrived.

Elena couldn't really believe her eyes. She'd known for a while that they had been going out, but she would never have guessed the change that she had afflicted upon Klaus. The two were walking over to them, Caroline's arm linked in one of his, and both were smiling affectionately at each other as they chatted.

Elena turned and flashed Damon a wide-eyed look, and he nodded in understanding. He couldn't believe it either. Klaus seemed so…normal.

"Elena! Damon!" Caroline suddenly said; a wide smile on her face. She looked positively radiant.

"Hey Caroline," Elena greeted her friend. "New dress?"

Caroline nodded. "Klaus actually got it for me for tonight. Isn't it beautiful?" She gushed.

"It is," Elena said, jealously admiring it as Damon wrapped his arms around her waist.

"You're more beautiful, Elena." Damon assured her, whispering in her ear so that the other two vampires couldn't hear.

Elena smiled at this, but the smile quickly faded once she saw who was staring at her.

"Good evening, Elena." Klaus said politely. There seemed to be no reason to be afraid from the tone of voice he was using, but Elena saw how he was looking at her.

"G-good evening Klaus," Elena replied, her voice trembling slightly. She hoped nobody else noticed.

She should have known better. Damon had been watching the brief exchange like a hawk, and his eyes narrowed once he realised that Klaus had scared her.

A smirk on his face, Klaus then turned to Damon: "And good evening to you too, Damon."

Damon nodded stiffly, his eyes still trained on Elena. She turned to stare up at him with wide eyes, and he smoothly wrapped one arm protectively around her waist.

"Well! Shall we go inside?" Caroline asked, gesturing towards the door of the restaurant. She seemed to have no idea of the tension between the other three people, or if she did, was trying to remain as civil as possible.

Elena suspected it was because she didn't want to anger her boyfriend.

Once inside, a hostess shimmied over to the group with a wide smile on her face. "Good evening! How may I help you?"

"We have a reservation," Caroline told her. "The name is Caroline."

The girl nodded and walked over to a podium where she opened some sort of book. "Ah, yes. Right this way, please."

They followed the hostess to a nice-looking table. She placed some menus on the table as they all sat down, and walked away.

"Okay, what's with the weird atmosphere?" Caroline asked, finally picking up on what everyone was thinking. "Klaus honey, behave. It was hard enough convincing Elena to come with us tonight - I shudder to think of what she had to do to convince Damon."

Damon caught Caroline's eye and winked. "She hasn't done anything...yet."

"Okay, we do not need to hear about your sex life," Caroline cringed.

"Why not? You and I have had plenty of-"

"Some wine, I think?" Caroline interrupted him, signalling a waitress over, whilst glaring at her former lover.

While Caroline asked for a bottle of wine, Elena turned and glared at Damon too. That glare told Damon everything he needed to know, and like the whipped as fuck guy he was nodded his agreement.

"So Klaus, why don't you tell us how on earth you two started dating," Damon suggested, actually sounding curious.

Klaus smiled. "Do you want to tell them or should I?"

"You can," Caroline smiled back at him.

"Well, she had been bitten by Tyler and was actually very close to dying-"

"Bitten? By Tyler? As in...a werewolf bite?" Elena jumped in.

"Yes, a werewolf bite, Elena."

Elena turned to stare at Damon, before looking at her friend. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Caroline shrugged. "You didn't tell me that you and Damon had kissed that one time, remember? Consider it payback."

Elena rolled her eyes while Klaus cleared his throat.

"So, she was close to dying, and a distraught Tyler came to me and told me what had happened. I had never meant for her to get hurt, so I went over to her house and healed her. I also happened to find out that it was her birthday, so I got her a present," Klaus summarised.

"He was very sweet, and I, of course, was shocked. Later I started to wonder if he actually was a nice person, and after a few conversations alone with him I was convinced he was. He kept buying me presents too," Caroline laughed, "so of course that made me like him even more. Eventually he asked me out-"

"Which still sounds so lame to me. I courted you, and you accepted my love," Klaus said instead.

Caroline rolled her eyes this time. "Sure, honey. Anyway, we started dating but I didn't want to tell anyone because I thought you all wouldn't understand why we were going out in the first place."

"Which is true," Damon whispered to Elena. She grinned.

"And I _know _he's been such a dick to you in the past, Elena. Actually, not just to you. To everyone. But I _promise _he has changed, and I take full credit for that happening."

"Well, you're terrifying, Caroline. I'd hate to imagine you angry," Klaus teased her playfully.

With the two lovebirds now completely focused on each other, Elena and Damon turned to each other.

"Can you _believe _this?" Elena asked quietly. "He's such a different person!"

"Just before when we were outside the restaurant I heard the tremble in your voice, Elena. He might not be as different as you think he is," Damon replied.

"Yeah, I know. But that means he's just like you, Damon."

"Excuse me?"

"You're only ever completely nice and yourself when you're around me, sweetheart. You treat me _so _differently compared to everyone else," Elena explained.

Damon still didn't look convinced. "I'm not like Klaus though, right?"

"Well, you're much better than him, obviously. But he is being a lot nicer to us now that Caroline's here."

"I guess I see your point," Damon sighed. "But I am nice to other people too...sometimes."

"I know," Elena smiled at him. "I just meant that you are only yourself when you're with me, like Klaus is being right now."

"What is Klaus being like right now?" Caroline suddenly asked, catching the end of their conversation.

"Nice," Elena shrugged. "We find it weird."

"I know it's a little hard to get used to," Klaus said, sounding sincere. "But she has changed me into a different person."

Elena and Damon exchanged a quick look. They still didn't really believe him, but for the moment, he was being polite towards them.

Elena secretly believed he could change eventually. After all, Damon changed. For her.

**A/N: Leave a review if you liked the chapter, and as always, I'll be back in a few days. Au revoir!**


	10. Chapter 10: Denial

**Word: Denial  
Set: Late season one (think around 1x21 to early 1x22)**

Chapter Ten: Denial

Damon wasn't really sure when it happened. Maybe it was when he saved her and took her to Georgia for a day, or maybe it was when she comforted him after he discovered that Katherine hadn't been in the tomb like he'd thought all those years. It could have been when he stepped in to dance with her at the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, or even when he'd realised how infuriated he was at Isobel for threatening her.

He didn't want to put a label on what he felt for her, though. After all, he was still very much in love with Katherine. Sure, she hadn't been where he thought she'd been for the past century and a half, but maybe she thought that he had simply died back in 1864? How was he supposed to know, until he confronted her and found out for himself?

But then there was Elena. If it wasn't for that girl, Damon probably would have upped town and left a long time ago in search of his beloved Katherine.

Something about Elena was keeping him in Mystic Falls. He wasn't sure what it was about her that kept him there, but he was in serious danger of becoming whipped, and Damon Salvatore didn't do whipped.

Okay, that's a total lie. Damon Salvatore didn't do whipped unless the woman in question was a Petrova doppelgänger. It didn't even make sense though - Damon believed he wasn't in love with Elena, so how come he felt he was in danger of becoming whipped?

If this were 1864 and Damon was his human self, he probably would have realised that he was in love with Elena a long time ago. Now, he was simply in denial. Not even in denial, he just didn't even believe it could be possible to fall in love with someone who looked exactly the same as Katherine.

It was just that Elena was so nice to him – nicer than Katherine had _ever _been – and she was so stubborn and so naïve and so precious and so perfect.

With a long sigh, Damon pounded the last of his bourbon and set the empty glass on his bedside table. He was definitely not in love with Elena. Not one bit.

He was her friend, he knew that. He'd told Stefan that. He'd helped her on more than one occasion, but that's what friends did for each other, and deep down Damon knew that he was as loyal as a fucking golden retriever when it came to friendships.

Damon liked being Elena's friend. She was nice to him, she asked him how he was and was genuinely interested in his answers. Of course they'd had their fair share of fights - which he suspected they would keep having - but something kept bringing them back together. He knew Stefan didn't approve of their friendship, which only made him want to be her friend more.

He knew that Elena had these looks that she pulled out only when speaking to him, such as her I'm-so-annoyed-with-you and her I-can't-believe-you-just-said-that looks. It was nice to see parts of her that nobody else had ever seen, which of course was true. In a way. Sure her friends had known her far longer than him and Stefan had, but he'd met a side of her that he was sure few people had ever seen.

The girl he'd naturally thought was Katherine at first glance that dark night, months ago. She'd flirted with him, he'd given her advice, told her what she wanted out of love and then he'd compelled her to forget the entire thing. He'd never seen that girl again after that.

It was very hard not to compare Elena to Katherine though. He tried not to, as the thought of Katherine still confused him. He still loved her, he knew he did. But that denial over his feelings about Elena was getting harder and harder to ignore. The comment that Isobel had made earlier that evening didn't help the situation either._  
_

_"But you took a risk with Damon. How did you know that he was going to give it to me?"_

_"Because he's in love with you."_

Damon had no idea how she'd come to that conclusion without even seeing them in the same room together, but she had, and now it left his mind reeling. Stefan certainly believed what she'd said, to a degree anyway.

Did he?

Reaching out with his vampire hearing, Damon listened to the quiet sounds of Stefan and Elena talking. After the warning he'd given him, Stefan had left the boarding house to get Elena who apparently 'didn't want to be alone'. Damon didn't understand why Stefan had brought her back there, but he suspected it was because he was trying to make him jealous.

Was it possible for Damon to fall in love with someone else? Or someone new? He'd only ever truly loved two women in his life - his mother and Katherine. Could Elena be the third?

He knew she was amazing. Hell, she was as much an angel as Katherine was a demon. He'd always thought that he would always love Katherine...but could that be changing?

Getting up out of his bed, Damon headed off down the hallway to Stefan's wing of the house.

Stefan and Elena were on his bed, talking. It was too boring for Damon's taste, but then again he knew he'd probably sit and talk with Elena all night if she asked him to.

_Whipped, _his brain told him. He rolled his eyes.

"Good evening, lovebirds." Damon said mockingly, forcing them to focus their attention on him.

Stefan scowled when he saw him, looking just as annoyed with him as ever. Elena on the other hand, looked at him differently. Like she was looking at him for the first time.

This didn't surprise him. It didn't appear that she had taken what Isobel had said to heart when she had said it, but of course she would have thought about it. They both had.

That look on her face, though...that look was going to kill him one day. Elena could probably bring every man on the planet to his knees with that look, and unlike Katherine, she probably had no idea she was doing it. Then again, Katherine could never give an innocent, doe-eyed look to anyone - and pull it off like Elena - if she tried.

He could imagine being in love with her without even trying, but that didn't mean he was. Not one bit.

**A/N: The Vampire Diaries premieres in four days! Who's excited? I'M EXCITED! I bet you are, too :)**

**Leave a review if you enjoyed the new chapter, and like always, I'll be back in a few days.**


	11. Chapter 11: Restless

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait! School just ended and I'm now on study leave for my exams next week so I barely managed to find the time to get this chapter out. Don't worry though, because in two more weeks I will be free to write whenever I want!**

**Anyway, while I was very tempted to write a chapter on season 4, I'd already started this one so it seemed kind of silly to abandon it just to write what I wanted. Enjoy the chapter, though!**

**Word: Restless  
Set: Mid-season 2**

Chapter Eleven: Restless

Being a vampire really sucked sometimes. A noise that came from the opposite end of a house, for example, shouldn't wake a human up, but could very easily wake up a vampire.

With a long sigh, Damon opened his eyes, listening carefully to see if he could determine what on earth his brother was doing. Beside him – still fast asleep – Andie rolled over, ending up with half of her body on his chest. Damon looked down at her, but kept listening.

"Stefan, can you shut up or stop whatever the hell it is you are doing?" Damon said, just loud enough for his brother to hear.

When he got no answer, Damon sighed and closed his eyes, ready to get back to sleep.

A low whimper had Damon's eyes open again, looking towards his bedroom door.

_What on earth…? _Damon thought, but decided to get up and check it out anyway.

As he eased out from Andie, she woke up slightly.

"Damon?" She asked, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Where are you going?"

"I'll be back soon," Damon replied, already at the door. "Go back to sleep."

He got a mumbled reply, but didn't bother to pick up what she'd said.

When he got into Stefan's room, he was firstly surprised to see that not only was his brother not there, but that someone else was in his bed.

Someone with long brown hair and the most beautiful olive skin…

_Elena._

Flashing over to his brother's bed, he looked down at her with confusion. What was she doing here? Where was Stefan? He was 99% sure that Elena and Stefan had been broken up for a few weeks now, but really, how was he supposed to know?

This was the first time that he had seen her in a while, though. Since the breakup, Elena had not really had any reason to come over to the boarding house anymore. Damon had been trying to stay away from her and distract himself by hooking up with Andie, but it hadn't really worked. As soon as he looked at her, all of his buried feelings for her came rushing to the surface.

He'd missed her.

Rubbing his eyes, Damon looked around his brother's room quickly. Not finding anything, he was even more confused than ever. What was she doing here?

When Elena grew even more restless, he reached out and gently shook her to force her to wake herself up. Elena's eyes flew open with shock, and she instinctively grabbed onto Damon's hands. As she worked out who he was, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Damon?" Elena confusedly asked.

"Yeah, it's me," Damon replied, pulling his hands away from her. He didn't like how much he craved her touch, if he was being honest if frightened him - she could probably get him to do whatever he wanted with one touch.

"What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? I live here, Elena. The better question is, what are _you _doing here?" Damon sat on the bed by her.

"What do you mean?" Elena looked around, her expression becoming even more confused than before. "Wait, why am I in Stefan's room?"

"Would you prefer to be in mine?"

Elena flashed a look at him. "That's not what I meant."

"Well, I don't know why you're here. I thought that you and my brother were not together anymore," Damon said, trying his best to keep his hurting out of his voice.

"We're not back together," Elena immediately said, as if to reassure him.

"Okay, well now I'm just as confused as you are."

"I was...I was having a nightmare..." Elena suddenly said, her eyes glazing over as she recalled her dream. "Stefan was in it."

Damon rolled his eyes. "You can't be serious, Elena."

"Just because I love him doesn't mean he can't terrify me, Damon." Elena snapped angrily.

"Okay, okay," Damon held up his hands in surrender, his heart aching painfully as it registered what she'd said. "I just didn't know he could scare you."

"He attacked me. I know, it was just a dream, but it felt so real." One of her hands flew to her neck, where she caressed it tenderly. "It was in his bedroom too."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know, that's what I'm saying! Somehow I ended up in Stefan's room, Damon. How did I get here?"

"It doesn't make any sense. Do you sleepwalk? Maybe you sleep-walked out of your house and into his room...no that makes even less sense," Damon sighed.

"Could I have been compelled?"

"Possibly."

"I don't like compulsion." Elena shuddered. "Vampires can make you do whatever they want with it."

Damon avoided her gaze. "It wouldn't have been Stefan, Elena."

"I know. It couldn't have been you either, I mean what could _you _possibly compel me to do?"

He continued to avoid her gaze.

"Could it have been Katherine?" Elena asked.

Damon shook his head. "She left town, remember?"

"Did she?"

Damon and Elena whirled around to spy Katherine leaning against the door to Stefan's room. She flashed them a smirk. "Hey lovebirds."

They exchanged a look of wonder.

"So it was you?" Elena sighed. "Of course it was you."

"Hey, it's not my fault if my darling doppelganger doesn't believe that Stefan can be just as evil as he wants," Katherine pushed off from the door and walked into the room.

"That was the point of the nightmare? To make me fear him?"

"Yes." Katherine confirmed, picking up one of the stakes on Stefan's dresser. "Although I suspect it didn't work, huh?"

"You have Damon to thank for that."

"Oh, Damon. How sweet."

Damon rolled his eyes again. "Where's my brother?"

Katherine shrugged. "Last I saw him he was off hunting baby bunnies and such. Yum yum, right Elena?"

"If you're just here to poke fun at her, can you leave now?" Damon said as he glared at her.

"Fine. When Stefan gets back tell him to give me a call," Katherine winked at the two, and then she was gone.

"Katherine Pierce, everyone," Elena mumbled. Damon smirked.

"I don't really understand why she feels the need to do this," Elena sat up now, staring intently at Damon. "What does she hope to gain from making me fear Stefan?"

"She probably just wants to cause strife between the two of you, that's all," Damon explained, getting up and heading over to the door too. "You should get some nightmare-free sleep, Elena."

"Damon."

He paused, turning back to her.

"Tell me the truth."

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Well...she loves him, Elena," he said bitterly, "she probably hopes that if you feared him that you would be done with him forever, which means that she would be able to swoop down and take him away."

Elena shook her head. "She's crazy. That would never happen."

_Don't I know it, _Damon thought. Not wanting to hear her tell him of how her and Stefan would be together forever, he left the room, leaving a still pretty confused Elena behind.

**A/N: Wow that did not turn out how I thought it would. Oh well, I guess it reflects my own bitterness over the Stelena and lack of Delena in season 4 so far (yAy EpIc LuV everyOneS fAVOUriTE sO hApPYYYY -_-)**

**Sorry. Au revoir and I'll be back with a happier Delena chapter soon!**


	12. Chapter 12: Thanks

**A/N: Is anyone else a little disappointed that Elena hasn't said thank you to Damon? At any point in season four? (He's helped her with her vampirism so much more than Stefan has, yet it's still Stefan this Stefan that -_- sorry I'm still pretty bitter).**

**Yeah so anyway that's what this chapter will be about – Elena thanking Damon.**

**Also irrelevant but I have two more exams to go after I post this chapter :D I'M NEARLY FREE! Enjoy the chapter, lovely readers.**

**Word: Thanks  
Set: 4x04 or just post 4x04**

Chapter Twelve: Thanks

_It was awful. _Those words echoed in her mind as she climbed the stairs that led to her room. Not long after saying this Elena had told Stefan that she wanted to go straight to bed, as she'd had a long trip and wasn't feeling up to anything. Stefan didn't try and stop her, either.

Lies upon lies upon lies. Elena wasn't sure how it had started – or why it had in the first place – but she had been lying to her boyfriend more and more recently. She was sure, though, that Stefan must have been lying to her as well. Were they never going to address this?

The first lie of the evening had been her telling Stefan that _it was awful. _She hadn't meant it at all. She'd actually loved every second of the stupid frat house party, because she got to have fun. She hadn't laughed or smiled like that in a long time - longer than she cared to remember.

Learning to feed without hurting anybody, by making it _fun, _turned out to be a lot more enjoyable and rewarding than Elena would have thought. She'd started out by feeding off of the pretentious douchebags at the party in corners of abandoned rooms, with Damon encouraging her and stopping her if she got too carried away. This then turned into her dancing and feeding from anyone she wanted to on the dance floor, which then turned into her licking Damon's victims' blood from his neck as she dirty danced with him. All in all, a pretty damn entertaining night.

Then Bonnie had to show up. She'd known immediately that Bonnie was not impressed, and would probably tell everyone what she'd seen. Elena hadn't _meant _to get carried away with Damon – after all, he wasn't her boyfriend – but he just had that effect on her. She lost herself when she was with him and everything around them became a blur.

She'd never openly admitted it, but that had never happened with Stefan.

Instantly killing the mood, Elena had raced out the door with Bonnie and ranted to her about how she should not be enjoying herself and that she should be at the party with Stefan; that she should be learning to feed _from Stefan. _Bonnie seemed to calm down after she'd admitted that, and Elena was relieved. But then Damon just _had _to be standing right behind them, listening to the whole thing.

He was clearly upset, Elena could tell that much. However, she couldn't very well contradict everything she'd said and tell him that she'd actually loved learning to feed the way Damon did, so the car ride back was extremely awkward and tense. Elena could feel the disappointment radiating off of Damon in waves.

_It was awful. _Elena couldn't believe she'd said that, if she was being honest. Stefan surely would have heard her conversation with Damon just moments before she said this, where she apologised and told him that he was right in believing that she had to feed that way, yet he hadn't said anything about it.

Elena collapsed on her bed with a groan. She wasn't sure where she was with Stefan, but she couldn't leave things like that with Damon. It wasn't nice to him, and she'd already done way too many bad things that had hurt him which she hadn't apologised for.

* * *

Elena walked into the boarding house, not bothering to knock. This house was still technically under her name, so she didn't need to. Plus, she was too familiar with the house's inhabitants to knock.

Completely avoiding Stefan's wing of the house, Elena went straight to Damon's room. He must have heard her coming, because he was watching the door when she came in.

"Elena," Damon greeted monotonously, one of his 'I'm smiling but I really don't mean it' smirks on his face. Elena sighed. He was still clearly upset.

"Damon," Elena replied. She moved closer to his bed, but stopped, unsure if he would want her that close. Deciding to get straight to the point, she launched into it. "Listen, I know Stefan interrupted us, but I wasn't really finished talking with you. I wanted to thank you. For what you did tonight, to help me."

"To be honest, Elena, it sounded like you didn't like me helping you at all," Damon muttered, rolling his eyes. "Also, a 'thank you' is not necessary."

"Yes it is," Elena insisted, moving closer to the bed. "You do all of these nice, wonderful things for me and you must think that I don't notice them or appreciate them, but I do. Especially with this, Damon. I still might not be okay with the whole vampire thing, but the way you handle it makes perfect sense to me."

"I'm glad you think so," he said sarcastically.

"I'm being serious, Damon! Thanks for everything you've done to help me so far." Elena said sincerely, hoping he'd believe her.

"You might be being serious, but why did you tell Bonnie that it was all a mistake?" Damon questioned.

"Didn't you see how disbelieving she looked when she saw us? I hate being judged more than anything, so-"

"-You're also such a people-pleaser it's ridiculous." Damon interrupted.

"Thanks. Anyway, I had to tell her what she had to hear. A part of me does believe that what we were doing was wrong, because of how...close we got...and also that I probably should have been with Stefan, but he can't help me the way you can."

"So you faked an entire conversation to please your friend? Elena..."

"Again, I'm being serious. You have to trust me, Damon."

"I want to," Damon said, moving so he was sitting on the edge of his bed. "But every time I try you just..."

"I know, I'm sorry." Elena meant it. She had no idea what her relationship with Damon was or meant, but every time they got closer one of them ended up hurting the other.

"So am I." Damon changed the subject. "However, this still doesn't mean that you need to thank me, Elena. I like helping you."

_Don't I know it. _"That's why I'm thanking you."

"You're a strange person."

"Just because I want to say thank you? I think that makes _you _a strange person, for thinking it's a weird thing to do."

Their childish bickering continued for a few minutes, before Elena said goodbye to him, both in much better moods than before. They hadn't even voiced the fact that if Alaric were there, he would have said, _"Are you guys twelve?" _like he always did when they argued with each other.

Stefan also had been listening to their conversation from his room, and wasn't trying to be worried, but clearly was. Another lie had announced itself and had been added to the pile. _"Sorry Stefan, I just want to go to bed. I had a really long trip back..."_

How long could lies hold a relationship together?

**A/N: Okay as I was writing this I realised that Elena **_**has **_**actually said thank you to Damon, in 4x02 when he brought her a clean dress. This means that I'm upset not over the lack of 'thank you's' but the lack of her saying it to him when he does something truly amazing for her. Silly baby girl, thanking him over a new dress but not thanking him over helping her feed from someone with killing them l o l. Oh, Elena. I love you so much.**

**ALSO ONE MORE THING – WHAT HAPPENED TO ELENA AND DAMON'S HALLOWEEN OUTFITS!? DID THEY CHANGE IN THE CAR ON THE WAY BACK TO MYSTIC FALLS, OR WHAT!? ONE MOMENT, DAMON'S SAYING THAT THEY SHOULD HIT THE ROAD AND THE NEXT HIM AND ELENA ARE WALKING UP THE STEPS TO ****THE DELENA PORCH ****ELENA'S PORCH IN COMPLETELY NORMAL CLOTHES DEVOID OF ANY HINT OF HUMAN BLOOD.**

**I'M LAUGHING OMG WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR _CLOTHES_**


	13. Chapter 13: Flame

**A/N: Hey everyone! So, this chapter is going to be about something that fans have been speculating about for a couple of weeks now – that Delena are supposedly going to have sex in next week's episode ;) Thus, I decided I simply **_**have **_**to write something about it. Enjoy!**

**Word: Flame  
Set: 4x07**

Chapter Thirteen: Flame

Hearing that Stefan and Elena had broken up made Damon very confused. After all, Elena had made her choice that she was going to be with Stefan forever just a few short weeks ago, yet just as suddenly they were no longer together? He didn't know what to make of it, but seeing as they had broken up quite a few times now he didn't want to believe anything.

Anyway, just because they were broken up didn't mean anything regarding him and Elena. It could, but again, he didn't want to hope. He'd hoped that Elena would have chosen him, but she didn't, so he wasn't really ready to dive back into it with her again. He'd need quite a bit of convincing on her part to prove that she really, truly wanted to be with him - and not just because she wanted to get over his brother. He wasn't some rebound guy.

Pounding the last of his bourbon, Damon looked over himself in his mirror one last time. Today was the day of the annual Miss Mystic Falls pageant - the very same one that only a year ago had Damon falling in love with Elena. She wasn't entered this time but was still going, which naturally meant that he wasn't far behind.

* * *

She kept looking at him during the pageant. He didn't know why, but it was very distracting. Just when he thought he could pretend to admire the girls in their pretty dresses, he felt her gaze on him. It was not only distracting, but confusing. As was Stefan's comment earlier: _"Let's not pretend that this isn't the happiest day of your life." _Sure he was happy that they had broken up, but why would that make it the happiest day of his life? What was his little brother not telling him?

As he was looking for some sort of alcohol inside the building, he found himself by the stairs that Elena had walked down, looking terrified and embarrassed and her boyfriend not waiting for her at the foot of them. That was when everything had changed. He'd made the snap decision to step in for Stefan, and had then had to watch as Elena looked deeply gratified. He always knew she was beautiful - after all, she was Katherine's doppelganger - but seeing her walk towards him completely messed with his head and without realising it, he fell for her. Sure, he didn't know he was in love with her for a very long time, but thinking back on it he knew that that was when it happened. Of course it just got worse and worse as he danced with her and held her close for the very first time.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Damon finally spotted a table that had champagne or something on it. It wouldn't help him to get drunk as fast as his bourbon would, but it was still good enough. He drank a glass quickly, before heading back towards where all the people were.

That was, until he heard her speak his name.

Looking up, he saw Elena, looking just as beautiful as ever, walking down the stairs towards him. He had a sudden sense of déjà vu, and had to blink to dispel the image of her at the previous Miss Mystic Falls pageant.

"We need to talk." She said simply. No emotions in her voice, no emotions in her eyes. He had no idea what she wanted to talk to him about, but it sounded important.

Frowning, he followed her up the stairs and into a room where she closed the door behind them.

"We're not breaking up, are we?" Damon asked sarcastically, hinting at his knowledge of her own breakup.

Elena rolled her eyes, ignoring his comment.

When she didn't say anything, Damon asked, "So...why are we in here?"

"It's private. I don't want other people hearing and seeing what I'm about to tell you," Elena blushed. She _blushed. _Damon was just getting more and more confused by the minute.

"Why?"

Elena paused for a long time, considering her words.

"Elena...?" Damon really did not know what was going on. He was so confused.

"Sorry." Elena replied sheepishly. "Okay. Here goes."

_Here goes what? _"What is going on?"

Elena moved closer to him until she was directly in front of him. He sucked in his breath. Just yesterday she had been staring at him with this exact same look, and it was terrifying. She'd also been holding his hand, like now, as she reached out for it.

He'd only seen that look once before, on his mother. It was a look of what he suspected was adoration...but surely it couldn't be, right?

"Damon," Elena began, once again thinking about her choice of words. She seemed to be trying very hard to say the right thing, but he still had no idea what was going on. "As you may well know, Stefan and I broke up yesterday."

"I did know that." He hated how his voice came out. "What does that have to do with me?"

"Everything. It has everything to do with you. You need to know why we broke up, Damon, so you'll understand." Elena took a deep breath. "We broke up, not only because things just weren't working anymore, but also because both he and I have noticed a change in me. It's been developing for a long time, but only really came into fruition when I turned into a vampire." She looked at him more intently now. "Ever since I've become a vampire, you have been helping me and taking care of me - you also saved me yesterday when I wanted to die. I don't thank you enough for anything you do, but one reason for that is because I know I don't have to. You'll always be here for me, something that I know in my heart that nobody else will."

_Well, you've got that right. _"So...bffs forever?"

Elena laughed and shook her head, her smile reaching her eyes and making them twinkle. She looked so happy, like she'd come to some huge realisation that he was still in the dark about.

"No, silly. I was actually hoping for something more than that," she paused, watching to see if he understood what she meant. When he didn't respond in any way, she continued. "I broke up with Stefan because something has changed between you and me, Damon...something that I don't have with Stefan, something that was magnified intensely when I turned into a vampire. My feelings for you, while pretty strong while I was human, are even stronger now."

He heard the words, but his mind wasn't connecting, his heart wasn't believing. He desperately wanted to believe her, he really did, but he was Damon. He'd been hurt far too many times before.

"What I'm trying to say is that I broke up with Stefan because...I want to be with you, Damon. I want to explore my feelings for you, and I want to make our relationship stronger than it already is."

Damon blinked. The words registered in his head, and his heart swelled. _She doesn't love me, but she _could _love me. Soon. And she wants to be with me..._

In all of two seconds Damon had her pushed back against the door and was kissing her. She responded enthusiastically, a small smile on her lips that drove him crazy.

Pulling away from him for a second, she asked: "So, is that a yes?"

"Of course it's a yes Elena," Damon sighed, resting his forehead against hers. His heart still hadn't calmed itself, and he now doubted if it ever would. Elena sighed happily as well, the smile still on her lips, which drew Damon's attention.

He really didn't want to mess up Elena's pretty little outfit, but soon that thought was forgotten as they kissed and sighed and moaned wordlessly. Kissing each other had become an art form, something that they both were determined to master._  
_

When they needed to breathe, even then they did not leave each other's embrace. Damon would kiss every inch of her face and her neck while Elena whispered to him everything that she adored about him (or tried to, given her state of breathlessness).

It was like a dream.

* * *

A very, very happy dream. That evening, they had retreated to the boarding house where they had danced together (something which Damon felt was absolutely necessary - it celebrated one year of, well, him loving her really, but she didn't need to know that). They were so close, and stayed close for the rest of the night.

They weren't sure how it had happened, but they had ended up in Damon's room, on his bed, with various pieces of clothing being discarded as one by one they became naked. It hadn't meant to happen, but with both of them in their own little world it wasn't surprising. They'd been a bubble of sexual tension for a very long time, and now that they were alone together they finally were able to explore it. To love each other. To worship each other. To cherish each other.

By the end of the night, they knew each other more than they had ever before, and found that they were content to hold each other silently by the fireplace, reflecting on the day's events, and watching the flames flicker back and forth.

**A/N: Sigh. My own writing gave me feels, guys. I'm not okay right now. This has to be my favourite chapter yet :')**

**To think we will actually see something sort of like this next week. Obviously I've gone a bit over the top, but that's okay because no matter what - Elena is going to tell Damon how she feels, which will lead to sex by the end of the episode. **

**I can't.**

**Goodbye, and I will see you in a few days. Au revoir, and leave a review if you enjoyed the chapter too!**


	14. Chapter 14: Letters

**A/N: Pumping this out before the new episode airs. Enjoy the latest chapter everyone, and most importantly embrace your imminent deaths as we watch 4x07 - I have already written my will.**

**Word: Letters  
Set: Mid-season 2**

Chapter Fourteen – Letters

Elena still wasn't used to being in Damon's room. She'd only been in there a couple of times - when she was looking after a dying Rose - and if anything that made her feel even more uncomfortable. It was Damon's territory, and while she was his friend again, she was very out of her element.

Really, she felt that she shouldn't be in there. She wasn't even doing anything productive. Stefan and Damon on the other hand had their noses buried in the Johnathan Gilbert journals, trying to figure out the location of the secret witch house. Elena had been helping, but got bored just as quickly. She'd already read a couple of the journals at her parents' lake house and didn't want to continue. Reading about her boyfriend murdering the author does that to a girl.

Elena sighed loudly, rolled over and rested her chin in both of her hands. "I'm bored."

"I'm Damon," he replied sarcastically.

Elena rolled her eyes. "That has to be the first time I've _ever _heard that, Damon."

"Why are you bored?" Stefan interrupted them.

"I don't really want to read journals all afternoon, as hard as it might be to believe," Elena explained, rolling off of Damon's bed and onto the floor. "I'm never getting up again though."

"So you're going to spend the rest of your life lying on the floor next to my bed?" Damon questioned, that sarcastic tone still in his voice. Not once did he look up from the journal in his arms.

"Basically. I could live under your bed, Damon." She proceeded to roll underneath it. "I have so many problems."

Damon dropped the journal and leaned over the side of the bed, looking under it. "Elena, get out from under there."

"Never. Hey, look at this!" Elena gently picked up a very old-looking box. It looked very precious, and Elena was at a loss as to what this was doing underneath Damon's bed.

"Damon? What is this doing _here?_ You should have it somewhere special." Elena crawled out from under the bed and knelt next to Damon to show it to him.

Damon frowned. "It usually is somewhere special. Why is it...Katherine," Damon groaned. "She's probably just messing with me again. It's normally in my wardrobe."

"What is it?" Stefan asked, now too interested.

"It...it's just a box," Damon said, prying it carefully from Elena's grasp. "I'll put it away."

"No, you go back to your journals and I will put it away. But you have to tell us what it is," Elena took it back easily.

"It belonged to my mother. It's one of the few possessions I still have of hers," Damon explained quickly, watching the box intently.

"Oh," Elena mumbled, staring at the box with a new-found awe and respect. Elena knew very little about Damon and Stefan's mother - she'd never asked Damon about her and she knew that she had died a few days after Stefan's birth, so he obviously couldn't remember her. What little she did know was that Damon was very close to her, and that Stefan was close with his father. She'd asked why, but he didn't seem to know; only knowing that Damon was never the same after her death.

Elena held it more carefully now. "Where do you want me to put it?"

"In my wardrobe, somewhere safe." Damon said simply, his voice holding no emotion that would betray him. Elena nodded and quickly stood, walking over and into Damon's wardrobe.

Once she disappeared from view, Damon and Stefan both went back to reading the journals and deciding not to talk about the box. Elena on the other hand, was fascinated. As quietly as she could, she opened it, her curiousity getting the better of her. Inside were various bits of paper, a few odd trinkets that Elena assumed were very important to Damon and a few other things that Elena didn't want to touch.

"Elena? While you're in there can you grab the other journals and bring them out here?" Damon called out to her.

"Yep." Elena replied, immediately looking around for them. Once she spotted them, on their own shelf at the back of the wardrobe, Elena moved over to it and set the box down, carefully closing the lid. Picking up the last three journals, Elena walked back into the main room and over to the bed. Damon and Stefan each took a journal and Elena decided she may as well keep the last one.

Collapsing on the floor by Damon's fireplace, Elena set the journal in her lap. It looked exactly as the others did - old, worn and leather-bound. Just as she was opening it though, she noticed something on the floor by her feet. Frowning, she leaned over and picked it up. It was a couple of pieces of parchment.

Leaning back against the wall, Elena unrolled them and was immediately interested. The opening lines on both of them said _"Dearest Damon"._

Elena swallowed and looked up at the bed where Stefan and Damon were still reading. They hadn't noticed her with the letters, so she pulled her attention back to them. She knew she shouldn't read something like this, as it was basically a diary, but unfortunately she was too curious that day. The first one read:

_Dearest Damon,_

_I saw the most beautiful horse today - a pleasant-looking black one, just like your Jack. Jack is far more handsome though, do not worry yourself. The horse reminded me of you though, so I found myself writing you a letter. How are you? How are things at home? Your father and I believe we shall be home within the next few days, but I do not know if this is true. Mr. Lockwood has kept him quite occupied as of late, and I fear he will try and keep him here. _

_I long to return to you, but I do not feel well enough to travel by horseback and the Lockwoods' two carriages are almost always in use. Mr. Gilbert tells me that he has found a way to heal me, which sounds like very good news to me._

_I hope you are being a good boy and are keeping up with your studies while we are away. I know you are, but your father worries. _

_I will write to you very soon, my son. I love you._

_Mary_

Elena sighed quietly. She knew that Mary must have been away with her husband because she was ill, which saddened her. Maybe that was one of the reasons why she hadn't survived giving birth to Stefan? Because she was too sick to recover afterwards?

Curious to read the other one, Elena began reading straight away:

_Dearest Damon,_

_I have good news, my dear. I found out today that I am to have another baby, which means you will soon have either a baby brother or sister! Oh, I am excited for you! Mr. Gilbert says that it would be best for me to stay at home and recover throughout my pregnancy, so we will be home in a couple of days. It won't be the same as it has always been though, because your father has ordered for a couple of doctors to accompany us._

_It's nothing to worry yourself about though. I will still be able to garden and cook, and if you want I will be able to teach you how to play the piano. I know you've always wanted to, and you might as well start learning right away._

_Your father says to tell you that you need to tell the servants to put up new curtains in our room. I know not why, but I assume it is to help my recovery. If you can, see if they can get any green velvet curtains. I do adore that shade._

_I will see you very soon, and I love you._

_Mary_

Elena tucked the letters into the journal carefully. Damon must treasure these letters - it sounded to Elena like they were the last written things to him from her. Poor Damon, she thought as she looked up at him, sighing again. Mary sounded like the nicest person in the world, and Elena was sad to even think about her. She wished that she could see a picture of her - to put a face to the kind words.

**A/N: I'm sorry if you are really into history and get annoyed with the letters D: I don't know how to write like they did, and I don't exactly know the schedules of fairly upper-class families back then. That being said, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and if you did please leave a review :)**

**Get ready to die in a few hours (lol that sounds ominous). LET THE GAMES BEGIN! /Bane. Hehehehe**


	15. Chapter 15: Look

**A/N: Halfway mark! Only 15 chapters to go! :D I hope you all enjoy the chapter and as always leave a review if you like it :)**

**P.S. Sorry it took so long to upload - I've been pretty busy lately and a couple of days ago I went to the beach with my friends and got EXTREMELY sunburnt, so I've been really tired, completely out of it and sore :/**

**Word: Look  
Set: 2x10, sort of**

Chapter Fifteen: Look

Elena didn't understand why, but now anytime she was around Damon, her heart ached painfully. She felt guilty, she felt upset and mostly she felt heartbroken. Naturally, this was confusing her to the point that she was about to march straight up to him and demand he tell her what on earth happened to make her feel this way.

Guilty and upset could easily be explained, but heartbroken? She wasn't sure whether it was her own heartbreak she was feeling or if she was aching for his own heartbreak. The latter would be what she hoped, as only a couple of weeks ago she would have sworn to her grave that she hated him.

To make matters worse, Damon had been looking at her differently. Normally she wouldn't have noticed, especially if only a couple of weeks ago she was hating him with a passion. When he wasn't looking at her, he was decisively and intentionally _not _looking at her. Elena probably shouldn't know when he was doing this, but truth be told, she had been watching him too.

Only to figure out why she was feeling this way, she added quickly. It certainly wasn't because she didn't like the way he was looking at her. Damon used to always have this...this playful smirk on his face when he looked at her, accompanied with his signature 'eye thing' that he knew she hated (but she secretly loved). Nowadays, he never smirked at her, never pulled out his 'eye thing' trick, and only seemed to look at her with a really sad expression when he thought she wasn't looking. He looked like a puppy who had been told to 'stay', and she didn't like it at all.

Elena really, really wanted to ask him why he looked this sad. She wanted to tell him to stop looking this sad because it made her feel absolutely helpless. She wanted to comfort him in some way, but she knew she couldn't. His sadness could be over something that had happened very recently, or something that had haunted him forever; such as something to do with Katherine.

_That makes sense, _Elena thought. _Katherine must have done something to make Damon feel sad! Why couldn't I figure this out earlier?_

If Katherine had done something, it would make perfect sense. Asking Damon what had happened would have to wait - she was going to go straight to the tomb and ask her for herself.

Except for one slight problem - she would have to sneak away from both Stefan and Caroline to do so. While she was not back together with Stefan, he'd been trying to weasel his way back into her daily life. She didn't mind, but when he started acting like her boyfriend she got a little annoyed. He didn't really understand the concept of 'broken up'. Caroline was nearly just as bad, but instead she was trying to keep her away from everything to do with vampires. It wouldn't surprise her if Stefan had put her up to the task, if she was being honest. Elena had noticed that those two had gotten a lot closer as of late, but she didn't know why.

Elena finally got her chance to go to Katherine during school. Both Stefan and Caroline had Classical Studies together, and Elena had P.E. which meant that she would be outside and able to sneak away to the tomb.

It turned out easier than she would have thought to do so - her teacher was running late and so wouldn't even know that she was there in the first place. Elena had been at the tomb just a few days ago, doing just about the exact same thing, except this time she was in it by herself. Nobody knew where she was.

"Katherine?" Elena called out into the dark tomb. Katherine appeared almost instantly, still able to move quickly from the blood she'd drank from a few days ago.

"Oh, Elena. Back for more stories?" Katherine sneered at her. Sometimes Elena wondered how they could look so alike yet be so different, and just then was one of those times.

"Actually, no. I'm here to ask what you did to Damon," Elena questioned, looking at her suspiciously.

"What makes you think I've done _anything?_" Katherine wondered, resting her body against a rocky wall of the tomb. "In case you haven't noticed, I've been in this shithole for the past couple of weeks."

"Yes, you have, but..."

"Do you mean from ages ago? I've got quite a few stories on that man, the lovestruck idiot. Stories which date all the way back to 1864, if you're interested," she said simply, sinking to the ground.

Elena was amazed that she could sound so nonchalant about him, as if she were only about to tell Elena about the weather. "No, not from 1864. Sometime during the last few days he started acting very differently around me."

"What did you do?"

"What did _I _do?" Elena exclaimed, then thought about it for a bit. "I don't think I've done anything..."

Katherine laughed quietly. "How is he acting, exactly?"

"Well," Elena sank to the ground also, "for starters he's been looking at me differently. I'm not sure what I did, but he looks so sad. And then when he's not looking sad, he seems to be intentionally _not _looking at me. It's very confusing."

"I'm just amazed you came to me for advice," Katherine replied.

"I didn't come to you f-"

"So, he looks sad?" Katherine interrupted, fixing Elena with a glare. "When is he not sad with Petrova women though? Maybe if you tell me when this changed I could help."

Elena had to think about it again. "Well, he started looking at me differently last week, but then after he and Stefan saved me from Rose and Elijah it turned into complete sadness."

"What happened last week?"

"It was before the masquerade ball. Stefan and I broke up_._" _Because of you, _she added silently. "When I was leaving he looked...I don't know, heartbroken for me? Which doesn't make sense, does it?"

"No, it makes complete sense. Damon always was really selfless with me, too." Katherine chewed on her lip for a second, thinking. "I don't know Elena, it just sounds like he's fallen in love with you, to be honest."

"Don't be ridiculous, Katherine."

"Okay, then you explain it," Katherine rolled her eyes.

"I...I can't. That's why I came to you, because I thought you had done something to make him sad..."

"No, Elena - Damon's one hundred percent completely done with me. He doesn't care about me at all anymore. This was all you. He's upset because he's in love with you, and I wouldn't be surprised if he never acts how you describe 'normal' around you ever again. Especially if you get back together with Stefan, which I know you will."

"Damon can't be in love with me, though..." The thought terrified her. When Damon fell in love, he _fell in love. _He'd been trying to get Katherine out of the very tomb she was in right now for about 145 years, for crying out loud! Elena wasn't sure she was ready to be loved that intensely.

"He definitely can. You're really what he needs, Elena. You don't have to love him back, but don't tell him that he can't be in love with you, okay? He is a nice person." Was Katherine...defending Damon? This day just got weirder and weirder as it went by.

"I'm...I think I'm going to go, now," Elena cleared her throat and stood up. _Do I thank her, or? _"Thanks for your help, Katherine." The words came out by themselves, leaving Elena mortified.

"Don't mention it," Katherine replied quietly. Elena took that as her cue to leave and headed back up the stairs, but not before she heard: "To pay me back you could deliver Stefan to me, Elena!"

Elena sighed, rolling her eyes. Katherine never changed.

* * *

Once Elena arrived at the boarding house, she felt all of her nerves rise up again. She was actually anxious to see Damon, to see if she could tell whether he was in love with her. Forgetting about knocking, she let herself in and heard a woman's voice from one end of the hall.

"You know, it's not nice to leave a girl naked so early in the morning," Rose of all people walked around the corner, tightening her dressing gown. When she looked up and saw that Elena was standing there, she grinned. "Oh...wow."

"I'm sorry...I'm..." Elena turned away, embarrassed to have heard Rose say that. Since when was she with Damon?

"There's nobody here," Rose explained quickly.

_Of course there isn't. Damn. _Returning her attention back to Rose, she said: "Actually, I came here to see you."

Dealing with Damon would have to wait. She could use this time to find out some more about Klaus - which she sorely needed to do - with the older vampire's help.

**A/N: See you later, alligator ;) Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'll be back soon.**


	16. Chapter 16: Summer

**A/N: Sup ma home dogs. Thanks to all the people who faved and followed my story, and if you wouldn't mind reviews make me feel even better ;) Enjoy the chapter people.**

**Word: Summer  
Set: Post 2x22, pre-3x01**

Chapter Sixteen: Summer

Elena hadn't told anyone. It had been only a couple of weeks since it had happened, but she just wasn't ready to. She had convinced herself that this was because she was too busy looking for Stefan and trying to come to terms with his sudden departure from Mystic Falls, but in reality she was just…scared. She was scared that she would be judged, and if history was any indication her friends _really _loved to judge her.

When Elena hadn't told anyone, Damon decided not to either. He was almost one hundred percent sure that he was having another hallucination when it happened anyway, so it could quite possibly not actually have happened at all. He definitely wasn't about to bring it up if it hadn't even happened in the first place. Also, if it _had _happened, who could he tell? Alaric? _Stefan? _Liz? He could already imagine how those conversations would go down. Alaric would be silently happy for his friend, but would still scold him nonetheless; Stefan would, well, do something completely over the top when he heard the news; and Liz wouldn't even care. He supposed that he could tell his fake girlfriend Andie, but she'd been compelled to be in love with him and wouldn't likely react well to hear that another woman had kissed him (even if that other woman was Elena Gilbert).

_It wasn't even really a proper kiss, _Elena tried to convince herself, tightening her ponytail a little too tightly. _You kissed him because you thought he was dying and you'd never get a chance to say goodbye. It was your goodbye kiss to him._

It sounded ridiculous when she thought like this, but it was _so _much easier than coming to terms with the fact that she might actually have feelings for him. It was almost like she was trying to completely repress that entire night on Damon's bed. So many things had been said and so many things had come out into the open that night. Elena had been wondering as of late that if they had _known,_ for certain, that Damon would have survived the werewolf bite whether that would have changed some of the things that were said.

Damon had told her he loved her, Elena had told him she liked him just the way he is, Damon had told her that she should have met him in 1864 as she would have liked him to which Elena responded with a kiss. Damon was too out of it to fully understand what she'd done, but since they hadn't talked about it afterwards, they were both really in denial over the night's events.

Elena was surprised when she found that she didn't actually regret saying anything that she'd said to him. Damon was _dying, _and he was with the woman he loved while he was doing so. Everything she'd said had been the truth, and she certainly hadn't faked those tears. She was just scared to think that she could actually have feelings for Damon Salvatore. He was her friend – one of her best friends, actually – and they'd both hurt each other so many times it was amazing that they were able to be around each other anymore. Now Elena kind of understood why he was able to – because he was _in love with her. _When Damon fell in love, he didn't do it half-assed. He fell _in love_, completely and utterly head over heels with whoever it was his heart set itself upon. She'd seen how much he'd been in love with Katherine and had heard about it both first-hand and second-hand, and she knew how intense Damon's love was. Maybe that was another reason that she hadn't brought up the kiss? Because she was afraid of how much he could be in love constantly able to forgive him. He'd done a lot of shitty things to her in all the time that they'd known each other, but she'd _always_ been able to forgive him. Could that be because she also had feelings for him? Was she also falling in love with him? She didn't _feel _like she was, but she had been feeling and acting weirdly around him lately.

_It's probably just because you feel awkward that you kissed him, Elena, _she tried to convince herself once more. There was a part of her that was so devoted to Stefan which couldn't even believe she was entertaining the idea that she could be falling for his brother, but then there was a part that was telling her that she should just do whatever it is that will make her happy, and that part believed that Damon might be able to do just that.

A knock on her front door drew her out of her thoughts, and she bounded down the stairs to get to it. She opened the door and came face to face with the very person she was just thinking about.

"Damon…" she breathed as she looked at him, all of her previous thoughts flooding back.

"You okay?" Damon asked, his eyebrows pulling together in confusion, his crystal blue eyes searching her face for the answer.

Elena snapped out of it and moved out of the way to allow him inside, trying to avoid his intense gaze. "Yeah, fine. What are you doing here?"

He lifted up the piece of paper he was carrying as he walked inside, continuing on into her kitchen. Elena shut the door and hurried after him – Damon had a tendency to fiddle around with her things and open _everything _if she didn't stop him from doing so.

"This is from today's paper in Atlanta. It's a newspaper article that talks about the appearances of dead bodies everywhere recently, as well as…body _parts. _They think that they have a serial killer on their hands, but I figure that it's–"

"–Klaus!" Elena interrupted, taking the article from him and quickly reading it. She tried not to notice how close he was standing to her as she did so, but she still felt nearly her entire body warm as she blushed. "You do think it's Klaus, right?"

_No. _"Yes," Damon confirmed, lying smoothly. Elena didn't need to know that it was really her beloved Stefan who was doing the killing. "I guess Klaus is a serial killer anyway, but I think that he and Stefan had been in town for at least a couple of weeks. I have no idea what it is they're looking for, but wherever Klaus is involved death and destruction seem to follow so…"

"What do you want to do?" Elena wondered, handing the article back to him and putting some space between them in the meantime.

"I was thinking of heading over to Atlanta to check it out." Damon said, then paused. "What have you been doing these past couple of weeks, anyway? It is summer Elena, shouldn't you be out enjoying the wonderful sun?"

"What do you want from me?" Elena asked suspiciously, already thinking that she knew the answer.

"Nothing, _really. _But if you really wouldn't mind, do you want to come on a little road trip with me?" Damon proffered, leaning against the kitchen counter.

Elena thought about it for a moment. A road trip with Damon was always guaranteed to be fun, and she might even get the chance to work out her confused feelings if she went with him. The last time they'd been to Atlanta together, she'd had so much fun and had forgotten about all of her problems that maybe this was exactly what she needed.

Except that Damon was actually _one _of her problems, but she could pretend like that wasn't the case if she really wanted to. "I would love to," she replied honestly.

Damon smiled at her, but was still looking at her strangely, as if he was trying to figure out whatever it was that had made Elena act this way. It looked like a number of things that had gone unsaid in the past couple of weeks would be brought to a head if they went on this road trip, which honestly made both Elena and Damon happy. While they hadn't brought up anything from that night, they both really, really wanted to, and they both knew that if they were alone together in a car they wouldn't be able to avoid the conversation. Thus they would be able to ask each other what was going on without fear of the other running out.

A road trip was sounding more and more perfect as they each thought about it.

**A/N: I **_**italicised **_**a lot of **_**things **_**this **_**chapter, **_**so I'm **_**sorry **_**but we needed the **_**emphasis **_**on certain **_**words. **_**See **_**you **_**later, _home dogs_ ;)**


	17. Chapter 17: Outside

**A/N: Heyyyyyy everyone! Sorry it's taken so long to update; my only excuse is that it's summer here and I've been too lazy relaxing and doing things hahaha ;)**

**Can we also just talk about the fact that Elena finally told Damon she loves him? Because wow I was not expecting that at all and my heart ripped itself out of its chest, but anyway, I hope you like the chapter :)**

**Word: Outside  
Set: 3x06-ish**

Chapter Seventeen: Outside

_"You're not strong enough."_

Alaric's words kept popping into her head as she slowly made her way home to get ready for school. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she knew he was right. Stefan and Klaus had caught her completely off guard, and she had been so shocked at not only seeing them but at what they were doing that she had no idea how to defend herself properly.

It should have been easy; Alaric and Damon made it look so effortless when they took down vampires, but she knew that they had been killing vampires for much longer than she had. Anyway, whenever she was about to kill one, she always had someone there to protect her, or to hold the vampire down. It hadn't ever really been challenging to kill a vampire, just terrifying. She wasn't Buffy, she wasn't the Slayer - so none of this came naturally. She would have to really work to make herself strong.

Trudging tiredly up the stairs into her house, she realised just how much she would have to work. She felt exhausted, but knew that it was probably because she was also emotionally tired from her anti-reunion with Stefan.

Sighing loudly, she dropped her bag onto her bed and proceeded to undress to take her morning shower. She caught a glimpse of her neck in her mirror as she took off her top - the foundation she had put on it had rubbed off onto the top and the bite marks from Stefan were clearly visible. She looked away immediately, not wanting to think about it.

"Not that I protest, but don't you think you should have looked around a little more carefully before taking your clothes off?" Damon. Elena rolled her eyes.

"It's not like you haven't seen it before," she muttered, throwing her dirty clothes into her hamper and covering her underwear-only clad body with a towel.

"Wha-when have I ever-"

"Two words: Katherine and Pierce." She turned to look at him, a slightly amused look on her face. "This might come as a shock to you, Damon, but we're doppelgangers. We look the same, and if I'm not mistaken then you will have seen her with barely any clothes on." _Not that I need that visual. _The idea of Damon and Katherine not only made her nauseous but also made her think of the fact that they had sex. Which meant that Damon knew her body both inside and out.

This should have made her feel violated - and would have if she was still the same person she was months ago - but really all it made her feel was turned on. It gave her imagination plenty of images to sift through when she needed a little self love.

Turning back away to hide her blushing face, she walked over and into the bathroom.

Damon so far hadn't said anything, but she knew he was thinking along almost the exact same lines she had been. _God I hope he doesn't make the same connection that I just did..._but he was Damon, and she knew that it was as certain as the sky was blue that he had.

"We can talk after I've had a shower, okay? I've just had vampire-hunting training with Alaric and I'm all sticky and gross," she told him as she shut the door.

"Oh yeah, how did it go?" It seemed that he wasn't going to pursue the Katherine/Elena lookalike situation, even if they both knew he would most certainly like to.

She dropped her towel and undressed completely before jumping into the shower with a relieved sigh. The cold water did wonders to her sticky situation and she quickly cooled down. "It went...not so well. Alaric says I'm not strong enough at the moment," she frowned, even though she knew he was right.

She couldn't hear what Damon said in return, so she quickly finished washing and got out. Once she was dressed and ready for school, she opened the door so she could hear him again.

"You should wear a scarf today," Damon commented, watching her with tight eyes as she reapplied foundation to her neck.

"Why?" Elena frowned. What an odd request.

Damon rolled off of her bed and walked over to her wardrobe, looking through it to find her scarves. He selected a purple and beige summery one that she would be able to wear without getting hot, and handed it to her.

"Just wear it. That way you won't get asked if you were mauled by an animal," he said bluntly.

Elena nodded, understanding. "Thanks."

He nodded, his eyes still tight, voicing their concern for her.

"I'm _fine _Damon, really," she assured him. "I'm really tired, and my neck kind of hurts but I'm not...going to burst into tears if that's what you think."

"You can if you want to, Elena. Your boyfriend flipped the switch and attacked you. You don't need to pretend like everything's okay," he looked down at her with that intense gaze of his and she knew he was very upset.

"Damon," she sighed, "thank you for being worried, but I really am okay. Seriously. I'm just pissed off at Klaus for making him do that to me. The Stefan we know isn't here anymore, instead we have soulless ripper Stefan. I can differentiate, even if they do have the same face," she suddenly smiled, "like you do with me and Katherine."

He returned the smile and rolled his head around. "Alright then, off to school with you. But come home straight away - I have a surprise planned," he grinned.

That caught her attention. "A surprise? What is it?"

"Well you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?"

* * *

Elena hurried home after school, eager to get away from Stefan and Rebekah; but mostly eager to find out what Damon meant by 'a surprise'. He'd called her early on in the day to tell her that Rebekah had moved in with them, but hadn't said a thing about the surprise. Elena had wondered if he'd forgotten about it, but when she turned onto her street and saw his car parked outside she knew he hadn't.

He was waiting for her inside her bedroom, and she greeted him with a wide smile. "Okay! It's after school, what are we doing?"

"We have to drive to get there, but you need to put on what I've thoughtfully laid out for you," he said, a joking tone in his voice, "and then we'll be on our way."

She looked him up and down and realised he was wearing odd clothes - a black t-shirt and black pants that she thought she knew the name of but couldn't remember what they were called.

"Why are you dressed like that?" She asked accusingly.

"You'll find out soon enough, when we are able to leave," he pushed her gently towards her own clothes and waited while she put them on. She was wearing the same funny pants he was except hers were beige-coloured, and he had paired it with a deep red tank top that she had to admit worked, even if the pants looked funny.

Once in the car, she was able to patiently wait for about five minutes before giving into her curiousity. "Okay, now tell me where we're going?"

Damon laughed. "I thought we could both use a distraction from our everyday life in Mystic Falls, so you and I are going to spend the afternoon doing something fun."

"Cool. What's that?"

"So nosy. Don't worry, we'll be there shortly. I'm surprised you haven't worked it out yet, to be honest," he smirked at her, his eyes flashing to both of their choice of wear.

As promised, Damon soon made a turn from the main road onto one that was lined with paddocks filled with many different farm animals. Elena began to put it together once she saw one that contained horses. Looking back down at her pants, the word suddenly came to mind. "Jodhpurs!" She exclaimed happily. "We're going horse riding, aren't we, Damon?"

"Yes!" Damon nodded, a pleased grin on his face. "Finally, you guess!"

"Hey, I would have guessed earlier, but I couldn't remember what these pants were called," she defended herself, watching the horses in awe. "How did you know I love horses?"

"I didn't." He paused. "But you do?"

"Yes, Damon! I haven't been riding for years, but it was something my mum and I loved to do," she smiled as she thought of those happy times. "My grandma owned a few so we got to go quite a lot."

"Well, lucky me for guessing correctly, huh?" He winked at her.

"Why did you pick horse riding? I can't imagine you on a horse," she giggled.

"Why not? I haven't been for literally nearly an entire century, and-"

"Nearly an entire century? What?" Her eyebrows rose through the roof.

He looked at her funnily. "I'm a vampire remember? Vampires are immortal?"

"Yes, I know that, but...why so long?"

"With the invention of the car horses weren't used as often," Damon replied matter-of-factly. "So I stopped when everyone else did."

"Huh," she mumbled, fascinated. Damon rarely talked about his past, so even this little tidbit had her mind reeling.

They soon pulled up to a small building with a large corral outside that had two tacked up horses waiting for them. Elena could feel the smile on her face grow ever larger; she was unbelievably excited to do this. She hadn't felt so happy in such a long time, and to that, she was grateful to Damon.

* * *

Damon had succeeded in doing what he'd planned to do all day - make Elena forget about all the bad things in her life for one afternoon and get her to relax. She hadn't lost the happy smile on her face all afternoon, and was chattering happily away about all of her past riding experiences. Damon was happy to see her this way: she rarely smiled anymore, and she rarely talked as much. He hadn't seen her like this since...the night he first met her, if he was being honest.

Damon's black horse Ebonheart was faithfully following after Elena on her golden palomino horse Karliah, as they moved throughout the forest. Elena seemed to be having the time of her life, directing her horse to jump over fallen logs, and once they found a large enough clearing, they challenged each other for a race to the other side.

Eventually they came to stop at the most "magical thing I've ever seen", in the words of Elena herself. Another small clearing in the forest with a natural waterfall; that when Damon tested it confirmed it was freshwater.

"Wow," Elena breathed as she looked at it. Dismounting gracefully, Karliah immediately walked over and lowered her head to the water to drink from it, and Elena followed suit. She refilled her water bottle and sipped from it gratefully as she looked around the small clearing.

"This is amazing, Damon," she sighed as she watched the two horses. "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome," he smiled, watching her. The ride had made even him forget about their crazy life back home, and he got to spend the afternoon with the love of his life; so he completely agreed with her.

She surprised him when she turned and threw her arms around him for a hug. "Seriously, Damon - this is wonderful. I'm so grateful for this."

"Grateful?" Damon replied, as he slowly and cautiously wrapped his arms around her too. It was the first time they'd ever mutually hugged; both times before that had been one-sided on Elena's part, and Damon relished in the feeling of finally being able to hold her.

It was over too soon though, and Damon reluctantly let go of her, instantly missing the feel of her body against his. "Yeah, you took me somewhere fun and helped me to forget about all the bad stuff that's happened lately. I'll be forever grateful for that."

"Well, again, you're welcome." Looking up at the sun, which was slowly sinking in the sky, he said: "I really hate to say this, but we should probably be heading back."

Elena looked up as well, and a look of disappointment flashed across her face. "Alright," she agreed halfheartedly. "But we have to do this again soon, okay?" She pointed at him threateningly as the walked back over to their horses. "No buts."

"I would love that," Damon replied genuinely, swinging up into the saddle effortlessly. "It will help you to get stronger, too."

"That it will," Elena grinned, adjusting the straps on her helmet and taking the reins in her hands. "We don't have to hurry back, do we?"

"Nope."

"Then let's get going. I want to explore more before we head back."

**A/N: An odd little chapter, I know, but I've had horses on the brain for weeks now and of course they weaseled their way into this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it and if you did, leave a review! I'll be back in a few days. Au revoir!**


	18. Chapter 18: Knowledge

**A/N: Hey! Sorry for the lack of updates; school's been kicking my ass and writing has just not been on my mind at all. However, with that said, tonight's episode was so awesome that I just sat down and pounded this out. So enjoy the latest chapter! :) I'll try to be back as soon as I can.**

**Word: Knowledge  
Set: 4x16**

Chapter Eighteen: Knowledge

Smug, Elena strode back into the gym, her high ponytail bouncing in time to her purposeful movements. Who was Caroline to think she could boss her around like this? She'd put up with it for far too long when she'd had her humanity turned on, and wasn't going to any more.

Luckily nobody had noticed her subtle manipulations of them all that day. She'd thought it would have been impossible to fool Caroline and Stefan, but apparently it really wasn't - and the real fun had yet to begin.

Falling in step beside her fellow cheerleaders, Elena began chanting in a monotonous tone and copying their actions. It _had _been a while since she'd been in a cheerleading uniform, but she found it was surprisingly easy to get back into the swing of things. Her quick eyes scanned the crowd, not sure who she was searching for. She paused on Stefan, who was watching her with a strange expression, and she repressed the urge to roll her eyes and sigh.

_Big smiles! Show everyone how happy you are! _The annoying voice of one of the cheerleaders came back to her. So she smiled. Watching Caroline in front of her, she allowed her face to turn up into a huge grin and subtly stepped back as she was being thrown into the air.

The chanting stopped, while the audience watched, horrified and gasping, as everyone around her hurried to their captain's side to see to her. Never mind that Caroline was actually a vampire and wasn't in pain at all, but obviously they didn't know that.

Elena met Stefan's eyes and smirked at him, feeling better about herself now that she'd done that. The knowledge that she'd hurt Caroline - even if it hadn't had any real physical damage - pleased her. It wasn't an actual feeling of pleasure as she didn't have any emotions anymore, but it made her feel like she had the power. It made her feel powerful, like when she fed from a human and holding their very life in her hands.

She wanted to do more, she realised.

A new plan forming in her head, she kept her eyes locked on Stefan before turning and walking out of the gym. Nobody noticed the lone cheerleader leave; everyone was too busy fussing over Caroline Forbes.

Walking past a group of too-cool jocks who were leaning against an outside wall, she stopped and smiled flirtatiously at them, swinging her hips more. They stopped whatever it was they were doing and watched her, their eyes widening.

"Damn, Elena, it's been ages since I've seen you in this little outfit," one of them commented, his breath coming out in a heavy exhale. Elena had no idea who he was, but she humoured him.

"I wanted back on the squad, and with Rebekah missing they needed an extra cheerleader. I took the part," she shrugged like it was no big deal, resting a hand on her hip. They all nodded their approval.

"You look amazing," one of the smaller, cuter jocks said as he looked at her. He didn't look at her with the same look the others did; this look was innocent and pure.

Gesturing with her finger, she smiled at the other boys and headed behind the building to a secluded area, waiting for him to follow her. It didn't take long; he appeared a few moments later, looking at her in confusion.

His innocence was killing her. Looking at him intensely, she waited until he was close enough. Grabbing him and pushing him back against the wall, she growled. Moving her lips close to one of his ears, she whispered sultrily, "Does your blood taste as innocent as you look?"

She wasn't even sure she wanted him sexually; she just wanted his blood. It was all she could think about. Kissing her way down his neck, she stopped at his jugular and licked down it. The boy's blood beat faster, and she moaned. Feeling him shudder against her, she pushed her body closer to him, and enjoyed feeling his response. Of course he wasn't as innocent as he looked; he was a teenage boy and she was a hot eighteen year old girl who had him pressed up against a wall.

Smirking against his neck, she pulled back and went in for a kiss. It was not like the normal kisses she'd had lately. Those had been with Damon, a vampire who'd had over a century to perfect the art of kissing. Their kisses were fiery and passionate, while these were just...not.

Stopping the kiss, she allowed him access to her neck as she undid and took his letterman jacket off of him. She liked it, just as she liked the ribbon she'd taken earlier from that blonde cheerleader.

Bored of his kisses now, she allowed herself to vamp out and promptly sunk her fangs into his neck, tasting his sweet blood. And was instantly horrified.

"Blegh!" She spluttered, pulling away from him.

"Something wrong?" He asked her, confused.

Wiping her mouth clean of his vervain-filled blood, she shuddered. "Yes. I've had enough."

He frowned, and she smiled sweetly at him. "It was wonderful," she complimented him, making sure to draw out the syllables in _wonderful._

His lack of a reaction to her biting him surprised her, but she quickly pieced together that he had been to into the moment to notice that she'd bitten into his neck. Rolling her own neck, she flashed closer to him and wiped the blood away, before walking away. She wanted some good blood.

Pulling her phone out, she swung her new jacket on and began setting up the party at the boarding house.

_Invite everyone. _She instructed the cheerleader, and hit send.

* * *

As Damon took her away from Caroline, she soon stopped struggling and allowed him to drag her to his car.

He opened the door for her, and without arguing, she climbed in. Thinking back to earlier that evening, she remember her words to Stefan: _"I remember our sex, and it was good sex." _She hadn't been lying. It was good. That didn't make it great, or mind-blowing.

Those words were reserved for the man currently climbing into the car beside her. Being handled by him just now had brought back all of their sexual encounters, and she watched him with silent appreciation.

He took her back to the boarding house, and she followed him upstairs to his room where he told her to sit on the bed. She complied, watching him move over to one of his dressers and begin leafing through it. She had no idea what he was doing, but she didn't feel curious enough to ask. Staring absentmindedly at the grooves in Damon's wooden floor, she sighed dramatically and finally spoke up.

"How much longer am I supposed to sit here?"

"Well...I'm not big on goal-setting but let's just imagine a time when you don't wanna kill your best friend."

Elena rolled her eyes and got off the bed, walking over to him. She told him she knew he must like her better this way; and using his feelings for her she manipulated him into allowing her to go with him, to wherever he was going.

She knew she had him the moment she touched her hands to his chest.

Nodding, Damon grabbed a few things from the dresser and gestured for her to begin walking back downstairs to the car. Stefan called him from inside it as they began driving, and Elena didn't speak; allowing Damon to talk to him.

"He's gonna hate you for that," she said, the moment he hung up.

"Yeah, well...emotions are overrated." He replied dryly. Elena smirked in slight amusement at this.

"So where are we going?" She finally asked the question she'd slowly been wanting more and more to know the answer to. Damon took out one of the photos he'd been looking at and stared at it as he answered her.

"A place every newbie vampire should go at least once in their life...New York." At her incredulous expression, he raised his eyebrows and nodded slightly in confirmation. "The city that never sleeps," he said with a sly smile.

Elena turned back to the road, feeling something close to excitement bubble within her. She'd never been to New York, but had always wanted to go. She also knew from experience that roadtrips with Damon always led to some sort of passion exploding between them - their most recent example being at the frat party on the college campus that they'd visited.

_New York, the city that never sleeps all right. _Elena sunk back in her seat more, a smile playing at her lips. _I'll make sure Damon never forgets this trip._

The music blaring out of the car's stereo, she allowed herself to relax into the feel of being in the company of Damon as they headed down the road out of town. This was sure to be a roadtrip for the ages, she'd make sure of it.

**A/N: Leave a review if you enjoyed the chapter! See ya later ;)**


	19. Chapter 19: Companion

**A/N: Update before the new episode airs! :D If you're anything like me, you can't **_**wait **_**to see Damon and Elena in New York (it's my favourite place in the world so !)**

**Enjoy the latest chapter :)**

**Word: Companion  
Set: 4x17**

Chapter Nineteen: Companion

"Isn't it amazing?"

Elena nodded, smiling, as she spun slowly around. The bright sounds and lights and people of Times Square assaulted her vampire senses, and she relished in the feel of it. There were so many people here. All of their blood was just pumping away in their veins, while they remained totally oblivious.

Elena had been swamped in people ever since she and Damon had parked his car and began wandering around Manhattan. She'd never been to New York before, so she was very interested in seeing all of the touristy sights, and Damon had insisted that they go to Times Square first. She knew that, if she were still human or if she still had her humanity on, that she would probably be so happy right now. As it were, she didn't know how to feel that emotion, but she was fascinated. She'd never been surrounded by so many people all at once.

"Look," Damon's voice whispered into her ear from behind her. "Look up on that screen. Do you see us?"

Elena followed his pointing hand and saw a giant screen that showed everybody in the Square. Staring at it for a moment, she finally saw herself. Damon was standing immediately behind her, and she smiled at it.

"Damon, we're on tv!" She laughed.

Damon chuckled, before taking her gently by the elbow and walking them through the Square. "I know that you like it here, Elena, but we have other things to do here as well."

"Does this have anything to do with those photos you were going through yesterday?"

Damon was surprised. He hadn't known she'd been paying much attention, let alone be focusing on him like that. "Yes, actually, it does."

"I knew it." Elena replied simply, obediently following the other vampire as they left Times Square. "We will do other things though, right? I want to go to Central Park."

"We can go to Central Park, Elena," Damon laughed. "But I need to do some things first. If I give you a cellphone, do you _promise _to answer it when I ring?"

"Of course!" Elena nodded, meaning it. Damon had given her this gift of exploring an amazing city; she could easily do this small thing for him. "Is there anything you want me to do, or can I do whatever I want?"

"You can do whatever, because this shouldn't take long. If you end up killing anyone, which I know you probably will end up doing, at least cover up what you've done to the poor person, okay?" Damon muttered, and then without thinking about it leaned in to kiss her cheek. "I'll call you the moment I'm done."

Elena watched him go. That simple kiss on the cheek had brought up many memories of her old self's feelings for him, such as love. _Love. _It was a foreign concept to Elena at that moment, but when he kissed her she couldn't deny that she couldn't feel the electricity between them. She didn't think that was love, but what did she know?

Maybe she just needed to fuck him again. She'd had _good sex _with Stefan, sure, but with Damon…he'd done things to her body that nobody else had even dreamed of. Shivering at her erotic memories, she began walking, not really sure where she was going. She didn't really care; she just wanted to explore. She'd heard – and seen on tv – that New York was like a concrete jungle, a place where opportunities were around every corner if you only knew where to look.

Sure she wasn't really looking for an amazing career opportunity, but the thought still intrigued her.

She'd just turned onto an expensive-looking street, lined with expensive-looking shops, when she saw a hairdressing shop. Or more importantly, the sign it advertised in its window.

_Sick of the old you? Come on in and we'll give you a full makeover! Essential for anyone wishing to ditch any remembrance of their old self!_

Elena walked closer and looked into the shop. It was clearly a very expensive shop – the fact it was on this street made it pretty obvious – and she watched as the women and men inside fussed around and cut and styled and dyed their customers' hair.

Focusing on her reflection in the window, she looked at her hair. What did it mean to her? Nothing, really. It was only hair. She certainly didn't _feel _anything about her hair, and she'd had it in this style for as long as she could remember.

Not to mention her doppelganger had the exact same haircut as she did. Did she want to walk around for the rest of forever looking as much the same as Katherine as she did right then?

_No. _She really did not.

Quickly walking up the steps, she opened the door and a bright-smiling (if not a bit surprised) receptionist greeted her.

"Good morning miss! Do you have an appointment? We currently aren't accepting walk-in bookings," she smiled, rolling her eyes as if the idea was very strange to her.

Elena frowned, and walked closer to her, locking her eyes with the receptionist's. "I think you might want to reconsider this time," she warned. "Oh, and, you're going to give me anything I want for free."

"I will give you anything you want for free…" she repeated, in a dazed-sounding tone.

Satisfied, Elena broke eye contact. "Shall we get started?"

"Oh, of course, but I'm not a hair stylist. You'll have to go around and talk to someone in the salon."

Elena nodded and followed her advice, walking down the row of chairs that were currently all occupied, except for one. She immediately went and sat in it.

"What are we going to get done today?" A man came up behind her, touching her hair with an interested look on his face.

"I saw the sign in the window. I want a new hairstyle. Something with a little more layers, and a lot more...red."

* * *

Elena walked happily along the road now, her new hairstyle bouncing in time. She loved her new hair, and could barely keep the grin off her face. Any time she passed by a reflective surface, she'd admire her reflection. This was definitely a very good change.

"Katerina?!"

Elena whipped around, the grin gone from her face, her eyes searching for the person who'd just called her doppelganger's name. Finally, she spotted the source of the outburst.

"What are _you _doing here?" Elena exclaimed. "I thought you were in Mystic Falls!"

"How would you know I was there?" Her tone was incredulous, and her eyebrows were raised in surprise.

"I'm not Katherine. It's me. Elena. I'm here with Damon," she explained, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh, that's sweet. Still listening to him, huh?"

"I could say the same thing about you."

"Excuse me?"

"Why else would you be here if not to impress your brother?"

"What makes you think I want anything more to do with Nik?"

"Well, you've always forgiven him in the past. It only seems logical that you're here to find Katherine, and find the cure."

Rebekah pursed her lips, and nodded. "I haven't forgiven Nik, but yes, I am trying to find the cure. However I didn't know Katherine was in New York. I followed Damon's car here."

"If that is true, how did you not know I was here?" Elena rolled her eyes, calling her out.

"No, it's true. I was far enough away that Damon wouldn't suspect me following him. I thought you were still in Mystic Falls."

"Alright, fine. What do you want?"

"I want to join up with Damon. And since you're here as his companion...well, I guess that means I want to join up with you, too." Rebekah walked closer to her, her face showing only sincerity. She meant what she was saying, Elena realised, as she read her facial expression.

"Damon's off doing his own thing at the moment. I don't know where he is, I'm just waiting for him to call me." Elena explained, her dismissal of Rebekah's offer meaning that she had accepted her.

"Let me guess - this has something to do with his friend Will?" Rebekah guessed, flipping her hair slightly.

"Who's Will?" Elena asked stupidly, before it dawned on her. "The guy in the pictures? I assumed he was dead."

"He is," Rebekah chewed on her lip as she thought. "He killed him. He did seem to know him though. I wonder what Damon is up to..."

A vibration in Elena's pocket drew her attention from Rebekah, and she pulled out the phone Damon had given to her. "I guess we'll find out now. It's him," she pressed the 'accept call' button. "Hey."

"Elena? I'm going to give you an address to meet me in a club." Music was blaring in the background, and Elena had to focus to catch all of his words. He recited the address to her, and she told him she would be there shortly.

"Damon wants us to-"

"-Meet him in a club, yes I heard," Rebekah rolled her eyes. "Vampire hearing, remember? Shall we go then?"

Elena nodded, falling into step with the blonde vampire. It was strange that she was being so nice, or at least not as deathly mean as she was before, that it kind of baffled Elena.

"Why did you cut your hair?" Rebekah suddenly asked, flashing a look at her out of the corner of her eyes. "I'm not insulting you, it actually looks rather good, but I'm curious."

Elena shrugged. "I wanted a change. Also, Katherine and I were too physically alike. At least now I'll have some sense of identity. Not to mention...I was pretty bored and there was a sign and well..."

Rebekah laughed quietly. "I know how that feels. Vampirism can get pretty boring if you aren't doing anything."

"Yeah," Elena agreed. She liked this Rebekah.

"Can I ask you something, though? Why are you still listening to Damon? I heard Stefan say that since the sire bond is emotion based you can't be forced to do anything anymore."

"Damon took me to New York. It was nice of him to do. Also, we had great sex. My memories assure me that being with him right now is a very good thing indeed."

Rebekah almost choked. "_That's _why you're listening to him!?"

"Yeah. You should know. I know you've fucked him before as well."

Rebekah flashed her a wide-eyed, but amused, look. "Yes, I have."

"It's strange. Are we actually bonding over this?"

"No!" Rebekah looked horrified. "We are _not _bonding over our shared sexual encounters with Damon Salvatore."

"I wonder if Damon would be up for a threesome," Elena wondered aloud.

"Elena!" Rebekah's eyes widened even more. "You're entertaining me right now, but stop talking about that. There's no way we would _ever _have a threesome with Damon."

"Why? It's New York."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Yes it does. Isn't there a saying? _'What happens in New York, stays in New York', _or something along those lines?"

"I don't think that that is actually a thing." Stopping, Rebekah looked up at the neon sign above her. "Is this the place?"

Elena looked up as well, and nodded. Pushing past the Original, she made her way into the New York club. Damon spotted her immediately and flashed over to her with vampire speed, a slight smile on his face. This smile quickly disappeared as he noticed who was standing next to her.

"Rebekah Mikaelson?" Damon asked, his eyes flashing to Elena's, who shrugged again. "What are...what are you doing here? Elena, where did you _find _her?"

"She was following your car, and found me," Elena explained. "She wants the cure. I agreed to let her tag along with us."

Damon shook his head in confusion, but sighed in resignation. "Alright, Blondie, but I'm not taking any shit from you while we're here."

"You should say that to Elena," Rebekah muttered.

"Why?"

"She wants to have a threesome with us. A ménage à trois."

"Maybe later. I mean-" Damon immediately backtracked at Elena's burst of laughter. "No, I don't mean that. We're here to find information. But first and foremost, Elena my dear, we're here to give you a fun time." Damon gestured around him. "Drunk teenagers and adults, in an environment where nobody really knows what's going on. It's like the frat party, but to the _next _level."

Elena beamed at him. "Awesome. Well, I'm going to go and party, but don't think I won't take you both up on the threesome. If you both are too stubborn though, Damon, you and I will be having sex. This place has a rooftop."

Damon blinked.

**A/N: Honestly I don't even know what just happened, but well, hope you enjoyed it! Is anyone else down for an Elena/Damon/Rebekah threesome in New York though? I certainly am. See you soon!**


	20. Chapter 20: Prepared

**A/N: Remember back to when Elena kissed Damon as he was dying? Because I sure do. You should all be asking yourselves if you are ready to read some angsty goodness because that's what this new chapter entails. Enjoy!**

**Word: Prepared  
Set: 2x22**

Chapter Twenty: Prepared

Elena couldn't believe this had happened. She couldn't believe that she would have to possibly deal with one more death in her life – and not just anyone's death, _Damon's _death. Up until then, she'd been so sure that she would hate him forever after what he almost forced her into, but when faced with the very real possibility that he could die tonight terrified her. The only thing that kept her from breaking down was that Stefan was off trying to find a cure for his brother, and well, she also didn't want Damon to feel bad for making her cry. He just…wasn't really the kind of man who cried, she believed, even if he did get really upset sometimes. She'd always known Damon to express his grief and sadness in other ways, rather than letting tears spill from his eyes.

Realising that she'd let her thoughts go awry, she drew herself back to the present. Damon hadn't said anything for a while, seemingly content to sit in her comforting embrace. Elena didn't really want to let him go; she didn't like the symbolism of letting Damon die without someone being there for him. She knew that, if the situation was reversed and she was the one dying, he would be there with her. Cracking some joke, trying to lighten the mood. She smiled slightly at the thought.

Choosing this moment to go into another violent coughing fit, Elena frowned in hopeless frustration, her hands fluttering around him, not sure what to do or how to help. He went completely rigid when this happened, as if allowing his body to move with the coughs hurt him too much. This terrified her also. Damon was always so strong. She'd only seen him broken a couple of times, but even then, he wasn't ever in any physical danger.

He most certainly was now though, if coughing was hurting him.

Sighing, Elena leaned her head down against his damp head, not caring that he was sweaty and gross. He was _dying. _That wasn't a glamorous process, or anything like in the movies. Her friend was dying in her arms as they lay there together. Fighting against the urge to cry, she simply tightened her arms around him more. Was she prepared for this? Was _he _prepared for this? Sure, she had technically died the night before, but she had been so focused on not giving Klaus the satisfaction of seeing her weak and in pain that she hadn't allowed herself to feel anything other than anger. Death itself wasn't anything she could brag about – she couldn't remember what it had been like. Maybe that was because the fates knew that it wasn't her time yet and so had not allowed her to see anything.

"This was even more pitiful than I thought," Damon murmured quietly, his voice rasping slightly. Elena startled slightly and looked down at him, her eyes softening. It was such a Damon thing to say – of course he wouldn't want to appear this weak in front of her.

Swallowing her fears, she replied simply with, "There's still hope." This she really, really hoped was true. There was no point in giving either of them a definitive answer; because she knew, deep down, that it was highly unlikely that Stefan would manage to find the cure for a werewolf bite. Werewolves and vampires had coexisted for hundreds and hundreds of years – surely by now someone would have found out what could cure it?

Damon exhaled quietly as he lay there. Elena busied herself with wiping away the sweat from his face.

"I've made a lot of choices that have gotten me here," Damon finally said. He, too, seemed to not have much hope. "I deserve this – I deserve to die."

Elena frowned, her eyebrows drawing together and her mouth turning downward as she processed what he'd just said. "No," she shook her head, disagreeing with him. "You don't."

"I do, Elena, and it's okay." He sounded like he had completely accepted his fate, and that made her pretty angry. Hadn't he just months ago been furious at the idea that she was going off to try and hand herself over to Klaus? "Because if I'd have chosen differently I wouldn't have met you."

_That _caught her attention. She knew Damon cared about her – everyone was always telling her he did, and his very recent _'I will always choose you' _speech and the look on his face when she awoke from death the day before confirmed this. She stared at him wordlessly.

"I'm so sorry," he swallowed. "I've done so many things to hurt you." Damon's voice was getting harder and harder to hear; he sounded so deathly ill.

Thinking about what he just said, Elena knew he was right. He had done many things to hurt her in the rather short time that they'd known each other. But he'd also helped her in so many ways, been there for her…

"It's okay," she found herself saying. "I forgive you." What surprised her even more was that she meant what she was saying. She really did forgive him. She hadn't been sure she would ever be able to, but well, circumstances change when you realise that someone you care about might not be here tomorrow.

Tears pricked at her eyes, and she began rubbing his hand, both to calm him and her.

"I know you love Stefan," he said quietly, "and it will always be Stefan."

Her heart beat painfully in protest of his words, and she lay down on his chest, clutching one of his hands tightly. The tears were threatening to spill over, and she wasn't sure she would be able to hold them in once they started coming. Damon seemed to be having a long deathbed confession to her, and she didn't know where it was going, but she knew that that meant Damon had accepted his death.

"But I love you…you should know that." Damon continued speaking, his breathing laboured. That was it; that was all it took for the tears to spring free from her eyes. Damon loved her. Damon had probably been in love with her all of this time, and she had just been too oblivious and too caught up in her love for Stefan and her desperation to stop Klaus to see it. Damon had been in love with her, and hadn't pursued her.

She was beginning to realise that she might not know this man very much at all. What could she say in response to his confession, though? "I do," she ended up saying, her voice sounding choked to her ears.

Damon seemed to have been waiting for her response, because she felt his lips smile against the crown of her head. "You should have met me in 1864," he said wistfully. "You would have liked me."

She didn't doubt that she would, as knowing the Damon who wasn't twisted into misery and heartache and was still innocent sounded very appealing. But he wouldn't be her Damon. "I like you now," she said, contradicting his words. She wondered if he had known she liked him before now. "Just the way you are."

Damon's eyes were fluttering closed repeatedly – like he was having trouble keeping them open. _Oh God…_this couldn't be it, could it? Damon surely wasn't dying right now. He couldn't. Feeling more tears falling down her cheeks, she decided that she didn't want him to leave this way. He hadn't known much kindness in his life, and she wanted to do this for him. Leaning closer to him, she kissed him chastely on the mouth. That was all it was. A simple kiss. He was too far gone to respond to it, and she was too emotional to kiss him any other way.

He seemed to appreciate it though, from the way he sighed in satisfaction. "Thank…you…"

She let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. "You're welcome."

His eyes relaxed now – like hers did as she was falling asleep – and she wondered sadly if he was ever going to open them again. His breathing was slowing, and his eyelids weren't fluttering. He seemed at peace. She didn't want to bother him, but her heart was beating ever more painfully inside her chest, so she had to physically stop herself from breaking into sobs by clenching the bed sheets around him very tightly. She didn't know what she was waiting for now. Waiting for him to stop breathing? She could tell that that would be very soon. His chest was rising and falling so minutely that it would be hard to see if you weren't paying attention like she was.

"Well it's me you should be thanking."

The voice – her _own _voice – came from the entrance to Damon's bedroom. Whirling around and off the bed, guilt flooding her system, she watched as Katherine Pierce smirked at her knowingly.

"I mean…I'm the one who brought the cure." She raised the little bottle she was holding, and that doubled with her uninterested tone of voice made it seem like this was the most nontrivial item ever. Elena wanted to scream at her to hurry.

Shoving away from the door, Katherine sauntered into the room, passing by Elena at the foot of Damon's bed with nothing to say other than, "I thought you were dead." She sounded severely disappointed that this was not the case.

"I was," Elena confirmed, allowing Katherine by. Her doppelganger leant over the out-of-it Damon, who had his eyes open, but didn't really comprehend what was happening.

"You got…free…" he whispered in disbelief.

"Yep, finally," Katherine said, sounding pleased, as she poured some of the little bottle's contents into his mouth. Elena wondered what it was, just as she was also beginning to wonder why Katherine was here and Stefan wasn't.

"Yet you still came here," Damon said, just as quietly.

"I owed you one," Katherine said, patting his cheek.

"Where's Stefan?" Elena suddenly asked.

Katherine got up off the bed and looked at her, the smuggest expression on her face. "Are you sure you care?"

"Where is he." Elena demanded, stepping closer to the vampire.

Katherine sighed, and held up the little bottle she'd used to cure Damon. "He's paying for this," Elena's eyes flashed down to look at it. "He gave himself over to Klaus…I wouldn't expect him anytime soon." Elena could tell Katherine really meant it. Not for the first time, she wondered exactly what Stefan had gotten himself into for finding this cure.

She needed answers. "What do you mean 'he gave himself over'?"

Katherine shrugged. "He just…sacrificed everything to save his brother, including you. It's a good thing you have Damon to keep you company."

Elena's eyes flashed to Damon on the bed, who had his open and which were watching the exchange tiredly but intently.

"Goodbye Elena," Katherine smirked, heading towards the door and to her freedom. "Oh…" she turned back just as she reached the door, as if remembering something. "It's okay to love them both," she lectured to her young doppelganger. "I did."

Elena's eyes widened now, and she easily caught the bottle of…blood?...as Katherine threw it to her. When she looked back up to the door, Katherine was gone. Elena doubted that she'd ever see her again. She felt her cheeks flush slightly as she replayed Katherine's words, realising that she must have been watching her and Damon for a while before deciding to speak up.

Then she felt the horror. Horror that Stefan was off with Klaus – _Klaus. _Turning back to Damon, she watched impassively as he sat up, trying to hide her inner turmoil. Damon didn't seem to be having the same problem, as he looked up at her with the same horror she currently felt.

And then came the relief, which was accompanied with a lot of guilt. She was relieved that Damon was okay, that he wouldn't be dying and leaving her, which made her feel intensely guilty. She wasn't Damon's, even if he was in love with her. She was with Stefan, and yet she'd _kissed _him, while Stefan had been off trying to find a cure that might not even have existed.

A large part of her - Elena was surprised to find _how _large this part of her was - couldn't find the strength to care. Damon was alive. He wasn't going to die. She tried to beat this part of her back down, but she had the unnerving feeling that this night had set in motion a new chapter in her life – one that Damon was a major part of.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed the new chapter! As always, I'll be back as soon as I can and please leave a review if you did indeed like it :)**


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